Bachmann Miscalculates Cost of Doctor Visit

Michele Bachmann miscalculated the changing cost of doctor visits during a campaign speech in Iowa on Saturday. The candidate said that in her youth a visit to the doctor cost $5, and people who couldn’t afford it would even receive free care. She argued that government intervention in the health-care system has made such generosity and such low costs impossible. But Bachmann did not take inflation into account: $5 in 1961 is equivalent to $37.94 in today’s dollars, which is much more than $22.82, the amount the average person now pays for a visit to the doctor.