AHEAD16 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^ 03/GETT
YIMAGES(^2
)BRIEFING
INFORMATION ABOUT THE MARKETS AND YOUR MONEY.T-Mobile has rolled out 5G
wireless service that it says
will cover more than 200
million people in more than
5,000 cities and towns
across the U.S. That com-
pares with the currently
limited 5G coverage of Veri-
zon and AT&T. But there’s
a catch: T-Mobile’s offering
is “low band” 5G, which
won’t be as fast as Veri-
zon’s or AT&T’s speediest
offerings.
To take advantage of 5G,
you need to upgrade your
phone. T-Mobile offers two
phones—the OnePlus 7T
Pro 5G McLaren ($900)
and the Samsung Galaxy
Note10+ 5G ($1,300)—that
will tap into its low-band
5G network where it’s
available and rely on 4G
coverage everywhere else.
(Apple doesn’t yet offer
an iPhone that can tap 5G
speeds.) T-Mobile is dan-
gling incentives to lure cus-
tomers to its 5G network.Health care spending in 2018
rose at a slower rate than
spending in the overall econ-
omy, according to a recently
released government study.
The report found that U.S.
health care spending reached
$3.6 trillion in 2018, an increase
of 4.6%. That was greater
than the increase of 4.2% in
2017 but the same rate as in
2016, and it reflects a decade-
long trend in which spending on
health care as a percentage of
the overall economy is growing46 %
Percentage of those who
earn more than $80,000 per
year who are carrying credit
card debt, according to a re-
cent Bankrate study. People
earning $40,000 or less, had
the least amount of debt.HEALTH CARE INFLATION
MAY BE SLOWING
5G WIRELESS
RAMPS UPslower than historical averages.
An Affordable Care Act tax
accounts for most of the 2018
increase, according to the
study, which was produced by
economists at the U.S. Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Ser-
vices. The tax, an annual fee
on all health insurers, is among
several taxes imposed under
the law to cover the ACA’s cost.
Congress suspended the tax
in 2017 and 2019. Congress also
suspended other ACA taxes in
the spending bill for 2020.Other findings:
■ Retail drug prices fell by
1% in 2018 for the first time
in more than four decades.
The report attributes the
dip in retail drug prices to
an increase in generic med-
icine use, plus slowing price
increases for many brand-
name pharmaceuticals.
■ The cost per person for
private health insurance
rose in 2018 by an average
of 6.7%, to $6,199, the
most rapid increase since- That doesn’t include
out-of-pocket costs, in-
cluding deductibles and
co-payments.
■ The portion of health
spending that consumers
are directly responsible
for—out-of-pocket costs for
deductibles, co-payments
and other fees—increased
by 2.8%, compared with a
2.2% increase in 2017.
■ Overall growth in house-
hold health care spending,
including out-of-pocket
expenses, premium pay-
ments and contributions
to Medicare through pay-
roll taxes, remained un-
changed, at 4.4%.
■ Health-care expendi-
tures amounted to $11,
per person.
■ About 1 million more
people became uninsured
in 2018, increasing the
total to 30.7 million.