Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen doesn't have the world's best record on health care, but his op-ed in USA Today is actually quite good:
At the end of the day, a fairly large part of the national complacence over health reform comes from the fact that most Americans are insulated from seeing its worst effects. But that doesn't mean they don't feel them. A lot of the discontent over the economy -- which is, at base, discontent over wages -- is actually discontent over the relentless march of health care costs, people just don't know to call it that.
Gas prices are in the political spotlight right now; this year's spike has been painful and the calls for action — and heads — have pushed other issues to the side. But it is worth remembering that when it comes to real, sustained growth in costs, when it comes to real, sustained erosion of families' disposable income, gas still can't hold a candle to the real elephant in the room: health care.If gas prices had risen during my adult lifetime — since I got out of high school in 1961 — at the same rate as per capita health-care expenditures, gas would not be $4 a gallon today. It would be about $15.The issue here is that though we see prices at the pump, we're not as aware of increases in health spending. Out-of-pocket costs go up, sure, but the bulk of the spending happens in the HR departments of our employers. We never see the change. Meanwhile, our wages don't go up, and we assume that an unrelated occurrence, probably the outcome of corporate greed. But it's not. As Ezekiel Emanuel and Victor Fuchs have argued, the two things are intimately related, and if Americans were as viscerally aware of the punishing rate and impact of health spending as they are over hikes at the pump, anger over health care inflation would make the discontent over energy costs look mild. The following graph tracks health spending and wage increases, and as you can see, during periods when health costs shoot up, wages flatten out:
At the end of the day, a fairly large part of the national complacence over health reform comes from the fact that most Americans are insulated from seeing its worst effects. But that doesn't mean they don't feel them. A lot of the discontent over the economy -- which is, at base, discontent over wages -- is actually discontent over the relentless march of health care costs, people just don't know to call it that. 
