of health care? If you use your pay increase to buy a bigger house or a better car, the extra value purchased does not negate the pay increasw, i.e, it is not inflation. So for this whole premise to be even remotely true, one must first demonstrate no increase in the quality of health care. (If one thinks the extra price isn't worth the increased quality, that is a different argument, on the order of why some people buy Toyotas and others buy a Lexus.)

you make a good point, but even without any quality data on healthcare I think we all know that the quality of coverage has not increased. a lot depends on how you define quality...are we talking quality of the coverage (which i would define in large part as what procedures are covered), or of the actual treatments...medical science is advancing all the time, so surely treatments are continually improving, but in this relatively short time frame i think one would look what is included in coverage to determine quality. My experience, and i would venture to guess most peoples' experience, has been that these increase in premiums have been accompanied by less actual coverage. this would make sense...if you as an employer were tasked with cutting costs on healthcare would you demand only that workers pay more of the pie? you would likely look at all option (less comprehensive coverage, higher premiums being your top 2 options), and implement each of them in a small way. so instead of raising your permium by $20 per month and leave coverage the same, I'm only going to raise your premium by $10/month, but you coverage will be slightly diminished.

quality is decreasing while cost increases.

You were driving a Camry. Time for a new car, and when you shop for it, you find they've improved it (bigger dimensions, bigger engine, new safety features, more bells and whistles). Your monthly payment goes up, so you have less disposable income.

You could buy a Corolla, but that would be less of a car, and your monthly payment would be more than you're currently making.

Why doesn't Barak stop the car inflation problem, instead of compounding it by increasing CAFE? Why are cars different than health insurance. Because we think health care isn't a business, or shouldn't be one.