Dave Chase believes that healthcare costs have stolen the American Dream. Beyond that, Chase believes that our high healthcare costs have cost us more than just money. People stay in jobs they don’t like so that they can afford healthcare, people feel a wage stagnation as employers have to spend more on healthcare, and up to 70% of people who file bankruptcies due to healthcare costs have insurance. The high costs of healthcare come at a substantial emotional, psychological, and aspirational cost to Americans.
In his book The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call, Chase writes, “Had health care costs paralleled the Consumer Price Index, rather than outpacing it, an average American family would have had an additional $450 per month – more than $5,000 per year – to spend on other priorities.”
The money that families are spending on increased healthcare is not the only money that could be redirected toward other priorities. Employers are spending more on healthcare, which means they have less to use for business investment, less to use for retaining great talent, and less money for expanding into new areas.
The stagnation for individuals and companies is real, and it has serious costs beyond just the money going toward healthcare. Individuals who don’t see their take-home pay increase will feel discontent. If inflation picks up, and the amount of goods that can be bought diminishes, people will channel their frustration into social unrest. If businesses cannot invest in R&D because too much money is going to the healthcare costs of their employees, then the United States will not see new innovations inside our boarders, and the dynamic companies that we depend on for our jobs will not be able to compete on a global scale. The costs of our high costs of healthcare go beyond a loss of spending money for some people. The costs are real, and threaten our economy, our global standing, and our social contracts with each other and our institutions.
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