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On Tailwinds

Anyone who wants to understand business should read Warren Buffett's letters*. All of them. Even his partnership ones when he was in his 30s. I read them about 10 years ago, and continue to intellectually salivate near the end of February when a new one is published. They're especially an interesting respite and cross-disciplinary perspective if you work in industries like healthcare or education, two of the most regulated and inflationary, and avoided by Buffett. Hint: there is a lot more going ...

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Healthcare Costs In Retirement

Nothing shows aspirational retirement imagery like convertibles, park benches, golf, and beaches. To add a dose of reality, $280,000 is a number that's referenced in many studies. It comes from a rigorous report from Fidelity as the amount an average couple retiring today at 65 would need in today's after-tax dollars to cover future health costs. Now read that last sentence again. The 280 estimate is split about equally between spouses (women at 65 live 2 years longer but men have higher claims ...

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February’s Index

A monthly list of interesting facts and figures from the world of healthcare, finance, and public markets. 2/3: The estimated number of Medicare quality metrics deemed uncertain or invalid by a NEJM study. 25%: the percentage of healthcare costs attributable to the top 1%. 1%: the likelihood of being in the top 10% of healthcare claimants for 3 years in a row (source: analysis of a company with 3,000). 80%: the percentage of people who are below average in total medical claims (CMS ...

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Putting a Price on Benefits

With the US close to full employment, for employees, health benefits could matter more. Many prospective hires are rightly fixated on salary, bonus, growth, and purpose but draw blanks on benefits. "The company offers a few plans and I pay around $1,000 year in premiums" is the usual type of analysis, if at all. Some dig deeper and look at copays or drug formularies. The employer portion of premiums is typically $5,000-6,000 and is growing twice as fast as inflation--that amount is real, and to ...