Blue Monday

MANIFESTO

All the news is bad this morning, not least of which is this:

As the credit crunch threatens to throw the economy into a deep slump, Americans are already cutting back on health care, a sector once thought to be invulnerable to recession. Spending on everything from doctors' appointments to preventive tests to prescription drugs is under pressure.

The number of prescriptions filled in the U.S. fell 0.5% in the first quarter and a steeper 1.97% in the second, compared with the same periods in 2007 -- the first negative quarters in at least a decade, according to data from market researcher IMS Health. Despite an aging and growing U.S. population, the number of physician office visits also has been declining since the end of 2006. Between July 2007 and 2008, the most recent month for which data are available, visits fell 1.2%, according to IMS.

I suppose I shouldn't complain about this state of affairs, feeling as I do that Americans are overprescribed, anyway. Nevertheless, if US denizens (who, God knows, aspire to nothing less than immortality) are cutting back on their own health care, something's really up.

And, clearly, the situation won't be getting any better soon as

In 2009, the combined average premium and out-of-pocket costs for health-care coverage for an individual worker are projected to climb nearly 9 percent, to $3,826 a year, according to an annual study by Lincolnshire-based Hewitt Associates in preparation for open-enrollment season. Companies, meanwhile, will see their health-insurance costs rise 6.4 percent, to an annual tab of $8,863 per employee.

These data certainly won't change any Republicans' minds concerning where they'd like to donate $700 billion of other people's money, but it seems like they should.