Keeping Perspective

Building on my last blog entry on putting personal health expenditures in perspective, I'd like to share a resource with you that I use for keeping the economy's health in perspective.

Just as with a good investment portfolio, it pays to diversify your sources of information. One source in my panoply is Russell Investments' Economic Recovery Dashboard. (Disclosure: I have absolutely no relationship with Russell Investments; I invest with a different financial advisor)

It is an excellent way to quickly view market indicators and economic indicators, for current and lagging trends respectively, in historical context. I don't know a lot of people who can claim to know how the current rate of inflation compares to historical norms, so I find this resource helpful.

I subscribe to their monthly update (I have received no solicitations through them to-date, so I think it's safe) but if you mind giving up your email address they claim to update the data on every 22nd of the month - so bookmark the page and mark your calendar.

Here's the link: http://www.russell.com/Helping-Advisors/Markets/EconomicRecoveryDashboard.asp

Do We Need Public Entertainment Option?

I want to play Devil’s Advocate for a moment. When I read the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report on Consumer Expenditures (link here) I noticed something interesting.

To set the stage, we’ve all heard about how much individual consumer spending on healthcare is “out of control” and how it’s taking up an “unsustainable” amount of consumers’ paychecks. This squeeze on the average American’s wallet is one of the main reasons, assuming everyone’s being honest, that we are debating healthcare reform and the need for government intervention in what is described as a broken system.

But what if the numbers show that individual Americans spend almost as much on entertainment as they do on their healthcare?

That’s precisely what the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 report shows: that Americans allocate as much of their income to having fun as to taking care of themselves. Furthermore, the rate at which the spending is increasing is greater for entertainment: 5.1% to healthcare’s 4.3%.

This raises the tongue-in-cheek questions: do we need comprehensive entertainment reform to reign in these spiraling costs? Are we getting quality for our entertainment dollar? And do we need a public entertainment option to compete with private entertainment in order to keep it honest?

Health Insurance Exchanges

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the possible mandate for individuals to carry health insurance - much like we're obliged to have an auto insurance policy if we drive. A key enabler of the individual mandate is a means for every person to comparison shop for, and purchase, health insurance.

In an Amazon.com-like fashion, health insurance exchanges seek to fill that need. My company, CSC, built the U.S.'s first health insurance exchange: The Commonwealth Connector.

Given the current health reform debate, I thought it would be timely to write a case study on our successes and lessons learned from the experience so that other State and Federal entities could benefit. Just this week, my piece was published at HealthNewsDigest.com, and the link to it is here.

As always, I welcome your feedback.