Although healthcare spending has been predicted to be 25% of the gross domestic product by 2030, some leading economists see little wrong with making health care “the driving force in the economy,” reports The New York Times. Nobel laureate Robert Fogel, at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, told the Times that food, clothing, and housing consume only about a third of U.S. household income today, leaving plenty of room to afford health care that will prolong life. Harvard economist David Cutler agrees that the country is rich enough for a 45-year-old to spend $30,000 more to treat cardiovascular disease than he would have spent in 1950 to increase his life span by three years. Other economists argue, however, that spending more on health care doesn’t necessarily result in better health. Half the money spent on health care is wasted, Princeton economist Angus Deaton told the Times. In Medicare, “there isn’t anybody who has responsibility for making sure the money gets spent well,” he says. “Some huge improvements will have to be made as the consequences of that waste get greater.”
