The wife was reading an article about the cost of inflation in specific areas. The article claimed an operation needing a stay of four days in the hospital and all the additional charges including an in home visit after departure from the hospital.

Total bill for all was 171.00. This was in 1953. The absolute certainty is with what I think the bill would be today has to be many magnatudes higher. A thirty fold increase would only make it less than 6,000.00. My understanding it is around 7 to 8k to deliver a baby today. At least that is the price in Canada if for some reason like being a foreign national you are not covered by the health care system.

Although medicine is much advanced today if it was say an appendix operation back then. The only differance I can think of is the hospital stay would be much less today on average. Also the operation may be done with even a much less invasive cut.

My guess wages have not risen that high by some margin even yet. So in general health care may have seriously outstripped the inflation index since 1953. Incidentally the operation was 17.00 and was included in the 171.00.

These costs almost seem insane today. I was not working in 1953 so I have no ideal what the wages were. I know the family home was purchased just before then for 6,000 dollars and today it would have a market value of around 500k. The interm 60 years have been very expensive inflationary wise ones in many important sectors.

A comparison today is our cable, phone and internet service cost more per month. I paid less than half this for our first homes mortgage payment amortized over ten years. When I was making around two hundred a week.

We Canadians did not have universal health care then. So if I remember it was payments of 60.00 every three months for hospitalization and about the same amount to cover doctors. There where no co pays either. This was for the wife and two kids and myself at the time. It also was 100 percent coverage for everything.

Probably it is the compounding effect of constant otherwise seemingly light inflationary rises in prices that fools us over time.