A participant in a site I watch recently noted how little ($257) a physician charged his parents for his hospital delivery in 1957. The original comparison came with a transparent, negative reference to the Affordable Care Act. I did some homework, and found that the purchasing power of one 1957 dollar equates approximately to 14 cents now according to a couple of sites consulted. That $257 delivery in constant dollars equates to about $1,843 today.

That is still a bargain, of course. In today's reality, Webmd.com and healthcarebluebook.com estimate average physician fees for delivery and normal post-op care at $4,000 to $4,500, or just over double what the parents paid -- again in constant dollars.

On the other hand, the physician in 1957 had scalpels, forceps and gauze, while modern techniques and the modern delivery room, with ultrasound, etc., have reduced deaths for mothers and newborns considerably. In 1957 a mother had a 0.4% risk of death during or soon after childbirth; today that risk is only about 0.2%.

It's pretty easy to show that in this case the benefit change is roughly the same as the reciprocal of the cost change. There is no easy way to calculate what health care "should cost." Cheap shots at the ACA don't help.

The real scandal is that our US maternal mortality rate is worse than Albania and about three times that of the average country of the European Union. Much of that is attributable to poverty -- maternal deaths are much more likely as wealth declines -- that is what the ACA is intended to address.