If you could time-travel back to the 1970s, what’s first on the list? We’d hit the dance floor at Studio 54, no question. 🪩🕺 Bell-bottoms mandatory. 👖
But once the disco dust settles, here’s a less groovy question: just how much more are we spending on healthcare today than we did back in the ’70s? 🤔🩺 We dug into the numbers to see how medical costs have changed — and what that shift means for your paycheck now.
Here’s Five Fast Facts on healthcare spending in America:
- 💥 Blowin’ Up - Back in 1970, the U.S. spent about $74 billion on healthcare. Fast-forward to 2024 and that number exploded to more than $5 trillion. When COVID hit, spending jumped more than 10% in just one year.
- 🤪 Crazy Talk - Healthcare cost about $350 per person each year in 1970. Today, it’s more than $15,000 per person, even after adjusting for inflation. Basically, what healthcare costs now would’ve sounded completely insane to someone in the ’70s.
- 🕳️ Mind the Gap - The 1970s saw the economy grow 9.3% per person each year, but healthcare spending ran hotter at 12%. The gap is smaller now, but healthcare still grows faster. Since 2020, the economy grew 7.5% a year while healthcare spending grew 5.2%.
- 🎈 Float On - Healthcare spending per person rose 6.1% in 2024. That’s down a bit from 6.5% in 2023, but still above 4.2% in 2022. Overall inflation increased just 2.6%, yet healthcare costs continued to rise faster. Why? Healthcare prices are often set in advance and adjust slower when inflation cools.
- 🏥 Public Affair - Today, private insurance covers about 55% of Americans but pays for only 34% of healthcare spending. Government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP cover fewer people but make up 43% of costs. The main reason? They insure older, sicker, and lower-income populations.
🔥Bottom line: Phew! That was a big stat drop. We’re gonna need to unwind with some funky beats. Got plans tonight, queen? Maybe you should check your tax withholding. With a few tweaks, you might be able to bring home more bacon in that paycheck. Go to this article for some quick tax facts.
Did your health insurance premium go up this year?
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