Not just gasoline: The sneakier squeeze on family budgets
See Snapshots archive.
Snapshot for September 10, 2008.
Not just gasoline: The sneakier squeeze on
family budgets
What part of the economy has seen rapid price increases and put
a real squeeze on U.S. households and businesses?
Energy, you say? True. But health care is even worse.
Since 2000, spending on health insurance premiums actually grew
faster than spending on energy; by the first half of 2008
American consumers were paying $370 billion more for
insurance premiums than in 2000. Spending for energy is a relative
laggard by comparison, increasing "only" $320 billion since
2000.
Rising energy prices constitute a real drain on family budgets.
Rising prices for health care, however, are also eating away at
other consumption possibilities, and we shouldn't lose sight of
this just because we're not given weekly reminders when we pull up
to the gas pump.
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