Reason November, 2018
In 1960, six years before the start of Medicare and Medicaid, America spent about $27 billion on health care. That figure represented just under 5 percent of an economy that was about $543 billion in total. By 2016, combined public and private spending on health care had reached more than $3.3 trillion, or nearly 18 percent of the total economy, with almost half the bill paid by government. Now, thanks to factors such as increased drug prices and an aging population, official projections have health care spending increasing indefinitely.
In the five decades after the passage of America’s two largest health care entitlements, that sector has become a maw, eating everything in its path. Health spending has reshaped the nation’s...
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