The Economist: mapping US health care costs

[IIOY]

THE California HealthCare Foundation has unveiled a brilliant online infographic that powerfully shows how American medical costs have shifted between 1960 and 2010. As the animated treemap changes by year, the role of private insurance and federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid become more prominent, while out-of-pocket expenses shrink.

The use of a treemap was an excellent way to visualise the data. But it was imperfect in at least one respect: it couldn't capture the degree to which costs themselves have increased. To do that, one would need to increase the size of the treemap each year as well. It is easy to appreciate why they designers eschewed this. American healthcare costs increased by roughly 100 times, from $27 billion in 1960 to $2.6 trillion in 2010—the chart would needed to grow 100 times larger. (See stills from the chart below; click on them to go to the animated chart itself.)

Although everything from homes prices to petrol increased a lot over the past half century, America's medical costs grew at an especially hefty rate, from 5% to 18% of GDP. Americans spend about twice as much as Canadians, Germans, French or British. Indeed, the federal government in recent years has begun to spend more on Medicare and Medicaid than on defence.

Among the chart's most arresting stats: the out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs was 96% in 1960; today it is a mere 19%—the federal government pays more than half the costs. Likewise, the feds pay for about half the total cost of hospital care, compared with about one-third when Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. (And this seemingly "socialised" healthcare spending, it bears noting, predates Obamacare.)

The California HealthCare Foundation is a nonprofit group that aims to improve medical care and lower costs for citizens of the state. The chart is a compliment to its annual report, Health Care Costs 101.


Animated tree map is here.

Article with still shots of tree map here.

[y4m]

Look at that orange stuff (people paying out of pocket) shrink decade over decade.

That's a really excellent infographic.

[IIOY]

y4m, if you have a way of pasting it in the thread, please feel free to do so. In the five seconds I spent trying, I failed. I agree that it's a fantastic illustration.

[rugbywife]

Can someone tell me the difference between medicare and medicaid?

[y4m]

Aug 21, 2012 8:08:05 GMT -5 rugbywife said:

Can someone tell me the difference between medicare and medicaid?

The first is old people and the second is poor people.

[rugbywife]

oh, okay, a different 'pot' for each population...

[summer]

And medicaid (poor people) doesn't cover as much as medicare (old people).

[rugbywife]

Do people on medicaid have to pay to go to the doctors? ER? cancer care?

The whole system just baffles me because I have never had to pay a cent for medical care so I can't imagine being in a situation where some people pay and some people don't, or some people pay a little and some people pay more.

[summer]

My mom is on medicaid. She pays $20 - 30 per prescription (of which she has 27 different ones per month), $25 per doctor visit, and $30 per psych visit. She had cancer treatment. I think the long-term disability from her old job paid some and she (or rather I) paid a quarter of it.

[315bride]

Very interesting graphic. I am definitely sharing this with my students.