I was a child in the early 1960s and I remember how the unions negotiated health benefits for their workers and how non-union businesses started to offer health insurance to employees so as to be competitive for talented workers. At the same time, Medicare passed -- President Johnston's "Great Society".

The rapid cost of healthcare was the effect of the third party payer system IMHO. Today most people have their medical expenses paid by either the insurance companies or the government (Medicare - Medicaid -- VA [the taxpayers]).

Obamacare is just a continuance of what we have done for some 50+ years now.

Truth is: living in the USA in the 1960s seems a crude and harsh life as compared to what we have today. I wouldn't want to go back to those times again.

Also, that chart is misleading as it is not indexed for inflation: The $143 in 1960 is $1,145 today -- the costs are still in excess of 10X the amount but the quality of healthcare and its accessibility is better however not 10X better ...