This is a shocking visual. Especially when compared to health outcomes, which have stalled (and even gotten worse for some populations).

So what happened?

📈 We got sicker and started using more care.

🧾 Administrative costs, waste, and fee-for-service incentives pushed spending up (unfortunately w/o proportional gains in outcomes).

🏥 Health care became the nation’s top employer and, in many ways, a de facto "jobs program". But people are expensive.

💸 Other goods got cheaper (thanks to globalization and automation), while healthcare stayed relatively labor-intensive and hard to scale.

🔄 Meanwhile, healthcare became the economic engine of many towns (Cleveland, Nashville, Pittsburgh), locking communities into keeping up w/ the status quo.

The good news, I believe, is that software is finally eating healthcare. At this point, we have no choice but to innovate.