While many Americans are distracted by the melodrama surrounding the rollout of the healthcare exchanges, the real story is that healthcare spending is rising, continuing to increase, is unaffordable, and the PPACA doesn’t do a lot about it.
Total U. S. healthcare spending was $2.5 trillion in 2009. In 2012 it had risen to $3 trillion—an increase of 20% in just three years. That’s during a period of very low inflation.
However you want to rationalize it, whether in terms of total real healthcare spending or total real per capita healthcare spending, healthcare spending is increasing at an unacceptably fast rate. That’s killing state and local governments and stunting job growth.
