Warm-up exercise

I recently came across a “Dear Abby” column that I had saved because it caught my attention. It shows that even something so “entertaining” as Dear Abby can offer some insight to a field like finance. The article is from a loyal reader who came across an old (really old) hospital bill that had been saved by the reader’s mother. That bill was an old hospital bill paid by the deceased mother for the birth and hospital stay for the reader daughter. The hospital stay and birth covered a period from January 24, 1918 through February 7, 1918. The bill covered use of the operating room, materials, anesthesia and the room itself (at $2.25 per day). The total bill was for $39.50. How does that compare with what you would pay today? Have medical care costs really gone up that much?