Do Health Care Costs Fuel Economic Inequality in the United States?
The growing debate over economic inequality in the developed world, highlighted by Thomas Piketty’s <em><em>Capital in the Twenty-First Century</em></em>, raises an interesting question that is particularly pertinent to the United States: Have escalating health care costs contributed to the huge economic gap between America’s rich and the rest? <br /><br />
In a <a href="/blog/2014/do-health-care-costs-fuel-economic-inequality-united-states">new blog post</a>, David Blumenthal, M.D., and David Squires say there is some evidence that health care is indeed contributing to inequality in the U.S. For the more than 150 million Americans who receive health insurance through their employers, health care costs may be widening inequality, as employers reduce wages to compensate for higher insurance premiums. <br />
<p>The authors also explore other factors that help determine the impact of health care costs on different income groups, as well as the ways that Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act’s insurance subsidies counter economic inequality.</p>
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