I had the good fortune to attend an investor’s conference in New York recently and one of the feature speakers was Frank Coyne, chairman and CEO of Verisk Analytics, Inc. They are a data analytics company analyzing, digesting and reporting on insurance companies claims and data. Following are 3 statistics that he reported:
- The US spends 2.7 trillion annually on health care.
- 5% of the population spends 30% of our health care budget.
- 45% with chronic conditions go untreated … and many undiagnosed!
These are alarming statistics and cause one to rethink what are the real health care crises in this country? Is it affordability, access, education, personal responsibility or a combination of the above?
What can we learn from this data and what can we do with it? Perhaps we need to initiate an aggressive public education program, similar to what we’ve done with smoking and tobacco use. A federal, state and advertising council concerted effort to heighten the public’s awareness of, not our health care crises, but our personal responsibility crises. If you were the health care Czar, controlling the health care budget and resources, how would you address this issue?
Let’s initiate a meaningful dialogue! Please respond with your thought and suggestions in the comments.
Torelli, CLU, ChFC, MSFS is president of Newport Beach, Calif.-based e3 Financial.
