Just look back at the historical chart of US health spending from the NYTIMES article. One could speculate that the charts show some sort of outbreak right around the mid to late 1980's.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/us-health-spending-breaks-from-the-pack/
"Although you could quibble about the exact trajectories, it seems to have been in the late 1970s or early 1980s that Americas health care spending really broke from the pack. "
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/us-health-spending-breaks-from-the-pack/
"Although you could quibble about the exact trajectories, it seems to have been in the late 1970s or early 1980s that Americas health care spending really broke from the pack. "