Yes today. Median household income is about 60K. Many "ACA Compliant" health insurance plans have out of pocket maximums in excess of 15,000.
Then you are looking at the cheapo plans with high deductibles. Also, I have argued and made the case repeatedly that this is not an issue of skyrocketing inflation but too little wage growth over the past 20 years. I consider this case closed. You can believe in skyrocketing inflation if you like. I personally prefer to believe in facts (the same facts you actually quoted yourself)
Cost of living going up faster then wage growth, that's an issue of Inflation... The more money circulating in a society without a matching increase in productivity, you will see more money chasing same amount of goods, reducing purchasing power and increasing prices. Wage growth is a part of the equation, but Inflation's problem comes down to money supply really. North America in the 70s-90s, you had to actively look to screw up financially in order to struggle with bills, families could get by with one working adult... Ever since the explosion of money printing across the world in mid 2000's, Inflation shot up like crazy everywhere. If you were older and caught the wave, you did ok just living, but if you were young and did not own RE or Equities yet, it's a whole different ball game. Why do you think china and Hong Kong cost so much to live yet average salaries are super low compared to RE prices, I read that minimum wage is 4 something US in HK, people live in shoe boxes and still struggle, all that money printing in china, Hyperinflation catching up, too much money in circulation in those areas chasing same goods... You are witnessing a Inflation crisis Price To Income Ratio Hong Kong is second in the world at 49.38 in 2019 mid year after Caracas due to Hyper Inflation, Venezuela wasn't in the picture previous years. HK Mortgage as percent of Income is 315 % on average... Print china print, you hear the collapse coming ? https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/in/Hong-Kong
Whether they pay for a "non-cheapo" plan with a high premium and lower out of pocket, or a "cheapo" plan with lower premium and higher out of pocket -- it's going to eat up a huge percentage of a median family's income -- and as a percentage, far above and beyond what it was decades ago.
Because salaries have not kept pace with inflation, dumb nut. Tried to tell you now for the 5th time. Check it on the new search medium, I think it's called internet.
Oreo Cookies boxes are almost 50 % smaller, yet more expensive... They are puny now compared to when I was a child. As the saying goes : if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth... That's why these Central Banking clowns across the world keep saying there is no Inflation, cherry pick few PMI's to fit the narrative... Consumer electronics is cheaper and certain services sure, but shit that you need on a daily to live seems to go up all the time, only the stuff you buy every 4 years is going down, and also cause china operates at a steep loss on exports as well. Once china goes complete collapse, prices by other manufacturing countries will be geared towards profits, then Inflation will really get ugly in Developed Markets, especially DM's who will engage in devaluation of Currencies on top of goods cost going up
Yes, this is a great example. Thanks for the reminder. There are many examples of this type of skullduggery throughout the food industry. Some examples that come to mind... Entenmanns Chocolate donuts. Way smaller than they have ever been before. Gallon jugs of ice cream now read something like 3.75 quarts. Snickers bars, the regular-sized standard candy bar, HAD been something like 2.14 oz. for years, then they reduced it to (I think) 2.07 oz. I don't even know what they are today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickers#Bar_weight Lender's bagels (Frozen). They used to be a LOT bigger than those little shits you now see in the freezer section. Canned tuna. Don't even get me started. Much less fish for more expensive price. https://www.thedailybeast.com/tuna-shrinkage-cans-now-five-ounces-more-expensive I've been seeing these changes over the years, and these are just a few off the top of my memory. I considered it price gouging or "sneaky corporate profit taking", but never considered it being due to inflation.
My Irish Spring Aloe bar soap used to be 4oz per bar. Then it went to 3.75. Now it's 3.7. My old spice deodorant used to be 4oz (or was it 4.5oz?) Then it went to 3.5oz and then 3.0oz. Funny how the red plastic container is the same size all along though! It's a general decline in quantity AND quality. And prices increasing at the same time. These (and the things posted by others) are just anecdotes... but these aren't just one-offs, it's definitely been a trend for several years.