The Real Health Care Problem: Spending Other People's Money; From 50% to 90% in 60 Years

The graph above (Census data here) highlights the #1 reason why medical costs have risen, and will continue to rise: Out-of-pocket payments for medical costs have been falling for the last fifty years, and are projected to continue to decline, and will  fall below 10% by 2017.  By way of comparison, out-of-pocket payments accounted for almost half (46.78%) of total medical costs in 1960.  When we're spending less than 10 percent of our own money on health care costs, one outcome is almost 100% inevitable: health care costs will continue to rise, and there's nothing about Obamacare that will change that.