In 1960, more than half of Americans paid out-of-pocket for doctor visits, and 95 percent of them did so for prescription drugs.
By 2011, only 10 percent paid out-of-pocket for physician services, and less than 20 percent did for prescription drugs.
A designer from Georgia Tech turned some of the data captured in the California HealthCare Foundation‘s Health Care Costs 101 report into a time-lapse graph that shows the growth of both private and public third-party insurers over the last 51 years. Watch how out-of-pocket spending shrinks as Medicare and Medicaid appear in the mid-60s, and the big movements during the managed care era of the 90s.
I couldn’t embed the graphic, so you have to click on the screen grab to visit the CHCF website.
Interestingly, hospital care, physician services and prescription drugs accounted for about the same proportion of overall healthcare spending in 2011 as they did in 1960. We spend more today, though, on nursing care facilities, “other healthcare” — which includes care provided in non-traditional settings like ambulances, schools and military field hospitals — and home health care.
The foundation used data from the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
