2014
In 1943 the tuition to Harvard University was $420. If you apply the Consumer Price Index to that amount, the tuition today would be $5,699.89.
I’m guessing that amount might buy your books the first year.
In 1961 the year I began working in corporate benefits a doctors office visit cost $5.00. In 2014 that would be $39.26.
So, while this segment of basic health care is actually about double what the CPI would indicate, the cost of a top college is ten times or more the CPI number.
Health care is important to our physical health while a good education is important to our fiscal health. Spending on health care is a function of the unit price and the type and frequency of services we use with demand largely beyond our control.
A good college education is the function of one period of four years in a collective learning environment.
Where is the justification for cost increases far in excess of general inflation?
One factor is common in both cases, the buyers inability to make objective purchasing decisions because we all want the best health care and the best education for our children.
We are being taken advantage of and claiming “affordability” in both cases only because someone else is picking up a large portion of the tab is a farce that contributes to the problem.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I agree with your take on what is driving up the cost of health care but I think what is driving up the cost of college is not so much that someone else is paying for it but the ease at which student loans are being handed out to unsophisticated young borrowers who aren’t making considered decisions on how they will pay back the loans or what the cost versus benefit of the loan is.
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