Ask the grumpies: Why is healthcare getting more expensive in the US?

Two things are the primary drivers of healthcare cost increases in the US: 1. more expensive technology and 2. as people become richer, they demand more/better healthcare.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Let me say that again:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Those reasons are absolutely not why health care is getting more expensive. They contribute very little to increased costs. The two causes they state are not even in the top eight or ten reasons. Perhaps not even in the top 20.

At least one of the people who writes on that blog (perhaps both) is an economist, too. Not shocking, I guess, to be totally, idiotically incorrect for someone in that field.

Health care is getting more expensive primarily due to insurance. Insurance itself is inflationary, and it’s the prime driver of health care costs. For a similar reason — that is, student loans — secondary education is also increasing drastically in price.

Some other factors are health care corporate consolidation, lax regulation, bureaucratic costs related to insurance, patents, crowding out by the affluent, doctor training being too expensive/intensive, thus causing a lack of supply, and a few other factors.

But it has very little to do with those stated reasons, at least not directly.

I need to stop reading that blog. It’s bad for my mind, or any mind, because it’s usually full of bullshit.