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Healthcare Costs In Retirement

by Industry TrendsMacro Trends

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

by IndexIndustry TrendsThought Leadership

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

by Benefits ToolsIndustry Trends

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 ...

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Averages Over Time

by EducationThought Leadership

In many ways, I'm a below average driver. I only drive about 4,000 miles a year so I don't get much practice. I use a blinker most of the time but I'm not always courteous. Sometimes I cut in at the last minute, which I recently read is actually good for traffic flows, even it if makes me reticent about checking my mirror for the gestures of other drivers. I do return the favor and let people in. I run red lights when the risks are low. However, I can parallel park, and I drive well in the snow ...

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Arbitrage and Healthcare

by Benefits ToolsIndustry Trends

There are different types of arbitrage. Dictionary.com defines one form as the "the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal prices." Imagine buying gold in Italy in euros and selling it at the same time in New York in dollars. Those differences are short-lived and have transaction costs. Millions of people doing this across different transactions every day are what drives efficiency and price discovery Ri ...