It should draw policy makers' attention to an elephant in the room that appears to have been overlooked in the debate over how to rein in the galloping cost of health care: a lack of competition in what is now America's biggest business — accounting for almost 18 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.
In an Internet video released, Ryan said his plan would tame galloping healthcare costs and ensure that the program does not run out of money in the decades to come.
No limit on expenses there!" Griping about company travel and entertainment policies is a popular pastime, especially now with companies trying to put some rein on galloping business travel costs.
The debate is over how best to provide coverage to the nearly 50 million people in the United States who do not have health insurance, while also trying to rein in the nation's galloping health care costs.
As the population ages and health-care costs gallop ahead, mandatory spending will grow relentlessly, to 14% of GDP by 2021 (see chart) and much more thereafter.
In a world of ageing patients, explosive medical costs and galloping scientific advance, there can be no such thing as the perfect health service.
Galloping petrol and grocery costs have driven up inflation, so they look to core inflation as a proxy of where things end up once commodity prices stop rising.
Since the country's financial crisis in 2002, its government has taxed farmers at between 20% and 35% on their grain exports, while galloping inflation has pushed costs up by 25% a year.
Employers typically rein in health care costs, now galloping at 6% a year, by slapping their workers with higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments.
Galloping inflation is yet another cost, and price increases are absorbed largely by people without the means to try slipping packages of dollars past the dogs at the ferry terminal.
