Hardlines Stand To Benefit From Private Healthcare Exchanges: Citi

Healthcare reform was mainly intended to benefit people who don’t have a health care plan under their employer, and who don’t qualify for other forms of assistance, so most analysis has focused on how the individual exchanges will affect premiums. But the rise of private exchanges, often run by large consulting firms like Aon and Towers, provides companies with high turnover rates an effective way of capping their healthcare costs.

Healthcare costs decelerating

“While premium rates are rising at the slowest rate in more than a decade, they are still growing much faster than overall inflation,” write Citi analysts Oliver Chen and Kate McShane. “Between 2012 and 2013, the total employee cost increased 6.5% ($560), with premiums rising over 8% and...