How to worry about the deficit: 1) Don’t; 2) Wait a few years; 3) Then worry about healthcare costs

Despite the alarming federal deficit levels, there is not an acute deficit crisis now, nor is there going to be one in the short term. But in the long-term? Most definitely, and the culprit will come at the hands of health care spending in general. Health care spending is rising almost unchecked, and at current rates, unless something major is done to restructure how health care is priced, health care spending as a portion of GDP is poised to rise by about 10 percent every decade through the end of the century. That is not just a massive spending problem. That is a government-breaking spending problem.