According to cms.gov, "From 2000 to 2009, health-care spending grew by an average of 6.9 percent each year," whereas inflationdata.com indicates that for the decade of 2000 to 2009, that the average annual inflation was 2.54 percent per year, signifying a massive difference between these two numbers, and in this current decade of benign inflation, that gap has only continued to rise between healthcare and its associated costs including insurance premiums v. ordinary inflation for the mass of other consumer items that people deal with on a continuous basis.
The fact that more and more money for the average American is spent on healthcare as a percentage of one's income is great for those in the healthcare industry while adversely impacting the budget and ordinary needs of the American citizen. Healthcare or the lack of fair pricing within healthcare is also one of those industries, more than any other that effectively is the cause of bankruptcy for a significant portion of our population in which huffingtonpost.com reports that: "A recent Harvard University study showed that medical expenses account for approximately 62 percent of personal bankruptcies in the US."
There are a lot of fundamental problems within healthcare in which two of the biggest are healthcare premiums and the other being the lack of transparency in regards to healthcare medical costs. In regards to healthcare premiums, many consumers are rather clueless as to what they have or have not signed up for, and what their healthcare plan does or does not cover, and don't really address that issue until they try to utilize their healthcare plan only to find out that it doesn't cover them for some needed surgery or healthcare or the coverage percentage by the health insurer either maxes out at a too low level or the "sharing" of expenses is too high for the insured. This would signify that healthcare policies that cost considerable amounts of money aren't really well understood by the consumers that buy them, and in addition, that often healthcare companies in order to maximize their profit make it their policy to deny legitimate claims or coverage, so as to take advantage of consumers that are unable to fight or figure out the system. In addition, people that visit their medical doctor or are hospitalized seldom are shown exactly what they will or won't be paying for, specifically in regards to the medical cost, how long, how much, and so forth. In fact, to a large extent once you are checked into a hospital, it is almost akin to having sacrificed your civil rights, and you are for better or for worse, a captive audience, subject to all sorts of procedures, necessary or not, that you literally have no say about, but are in conjunction with your healthcare policy, stuck paying for.
The fact of the matter is most of our everyday shopping is quite transparent in that there is a price, the store honors that price, and a decision to buy or not buy that item is left to our discretion. When it comes to our health, though, most people are at a material disadvantage from the get-go in the sense that they aren't feeling well to begin with, which is the primary reason why they are seeking that healthcare, and there is in almost all cases no a la carte menu of medical expenses that they can choose from yet they are mandated to pay whatever that the ultimate cost will be.
In point of fact, healthcare will continue to far outpace inflation into the foreseeable future as long as the healthcare industry is allowed and permitted to conduct their business in their traditional opaque way, without full disclosure and without true authorized consent. Too often the healthcare industry gets a free pass, and thereby too often fleeces the vulnerable consumer, whereas its primary purpose should not be selfish profit but instead to first, do no harm.