strategy+business/Knowledge@Wharton Podcasts

strategy+business Media, a unit of the global strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, publishes a quarterly magazine, Web site (www.strategy-business.com), books, and, in conjunction with Knowledge@Wharton, this series of podcasts. The s+b/K@W podcasts draw on the insights of experts at Booz Allen and the Wharton School to bridge the gap between theory and practice in contemporary global business. As health care costs skyrocket, employers are finding it increasingly difficult to offer comprehensive health benefits, and the burden of health care financing is gradually shifting to the consumer. According to experts at Booz Allen Hamilton, consumers will need to meet this challenge by planning for their health care costs as they do for their other financial expenditures, by tapping into products aligned with the financial services life planning cycle. strategy+business and Knowledge@Wharton recently spoke with Joni Bessler, vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, and Kent Smetters, professor of insurance and risk management at Wharton, about what this “health-wealth” convergence could look like. In this first part of a three-part interview, Bessler and Smetters discuss whether a health-wealth convergence is inevitable, and how financial planning tools such as health savings and health retirement accounts will figure into the future of health care.