This is why controlling healthcare costs is almost impossible

A few weeks ago, Paul Krugman wrote up a Google poll showing Americans think the deficit is rising. In reality, the deficit has fallen by almost half. "The public has no idea that the deficit has been falling like a stone," he sighed. The same is true on health care. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey finds that a majority of Americans think health-care costs are rising faster than normal. The reality is precisely the opposite. From 2000 to 2007, national health expenditures grew, on average, by 7.5 percent a year. From 2008 to 2011 — the most recent data we have — they grew, on average, by 4.1 percent a year. This is historically slow growth.