Why are health insurance costs going up so much, and who's driving that?

Yeah, Joe, like you said in the opening, every year we get a glimpse into what the future health insurance costs are gonna be for the following year because the marketplace insurers have to kind of file with the state regulators and make their case and show the figures and numbers behind what they're proposing their rate increase to be.

And this year we're seeing double-digit rate increases for next year, which we saw the same thing last year.

So this is back-to-back double-digit rate increases, which it really begs the question, like, when is this going [laughs] to end? Is this just our reality now? Are health insurance costs set to just keep going up and up and up?

Well, and like you said at the beginning of the segment, how long can this really go on for? Can this sustain, these increases?

Yeah, well, the optimist in me thinks that perhaps with all of this converging technology, right, with, like, AI and machine learning, robotics, maybe we get to the point where health insurance costs start to do a U-turn and kind of turn around, and maybe we get to a tipping point where, okay, obesity starts decreasing in our country and the costs start going down.

That could be great for [laughs] our costs, but I do think that is a, a ways out, and in the short to medium term, it just feels like these costs are gonna keep going up every year.

But, you know, when consumers evaluate retirement-focused financial products, what are the most important risks they should understand before investing?

Yeah, great question, 'cause at the end of the day, we're product agnostic here, where we think every different product has advantages, disadvantages, and strings attached.

So in this situation, it sounds like this professional athlete was kind of sold something that he didn't fully understand.

There may have been a different type of insurance that may have been perhaps more suitable.

But at the end of the day, I think the lesson here is really that it's important to know, I mean, we say it all the time on the radio, but it's really important to know what you own, why you own it, and how much it costs.

But what questions should somebody ask a financial advisor or maybe an insurance agent before committing significant assets like he had to a long-term plan?

Generally, it's always good to start with, "Hey, what type of life insurance product should I own?" Because in general, life insurance is a good idea.

Like, you want to protect your family, you want to protect your loved ones, but it's about knowing what type of product, because there's generally two different types of life insurance out there.