Who cares what Communist Harvard academics have to opine about anything
It’s highly probable that all the states are doing fancy book work to make things look better than they are.
What has increased, and continues to increase, is the massive middleman infrastructure that has grown into the system. Firms that handle paperwork, mandated filings, and mandated patient record sharing. These costs will continue to escalate, as there's no incentive anywhere in the system to dial it back - the costs are hidden from consumers, corporate health care providers are calculating an annual increase in fees for these services, and zero efficiency is entering the system.
Meanwhile, others are jumping on the money train. Finding local budgets to be stretched thin, fire departments are now billing insurers for rescue calls, services already paid for by the taxpayer, and used to pay...for insurance costs for firefighters.
The gross failure in the whole system is that all costs for group plans are hidden from those they serve. A lot of people would be outraged to see a $180 bill for paperwork filing, but this is a routine cost for a lot of union health plans, many of which are paid by taxpayers.
If companies stopped managing health care plans and instead go to a monthly stipend where people can choose to buy health care plans, or manage their own health care - an option that many younger workers would greatly benefit from - then those middleman costs would finally be pressured to be reduced. Patients, when using their own money, might not opt for the most expensive drug being pushed by the pharmaceutical companies and instead opt for already proved generic drugs.
For some, costs would rise, but really it would be in line with the amount of services they are receiving. If five percent of the patient population are using fifty percent of the resources, then likely they should be paying more for those services, instead of the enforced subsidizing that is occurring right now. And men and post menopausal women shouldn't be forced to pay for health care plans that include pregnancy care or birth control, as is the present plan being fronted by Obamacare.
If the health care providers were handling automobile repairs, you'd be paying an average of $420 a month for a high deductible mechanical plan, and honestly, if your car requires five thousand dollars a year in maintenance, you either own a very very expensive car, or are driving a car that should have been in the junkyard long long ago.
Don’t worry - Obama will find a way to again bailout the States in the form of a “stimulus” program of some sort.
Jeff is a sharp guy and can explain complicated issues in terms that the layman can understand.