Word: indexes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...earthly paradise. But Miami's reputation for dysfunction is on display again this spring as the Obama Administration shifts health-care reform into high gear - and a spate of studies slams the Magic City as the poster child for exorbitant medical costs. This week the Milliman Medical Cost Index listed the 2008 average private-provider costs for a Miami family of four - $20,282 - as the highest among the 14 major U.S. cities it studied, adding that more than 40% of that amount came out of Miamians' own pockets. That echoes recent analyses by Medicare, Dartmouth College and Families...
...targeting Miami and other warped medical markets like it. Miami's inordinate health-care outlay - 20% more than the national average - "is not a pretty picture," says Kate Fitch, a principal and health-care consultant for the Seattle-based Milliman Inc. consulting firm and a co-author of its Index. That's especially true since Miami-Dade County also has one of the country's lowest median incomes ($43,495). "If the [Miami] area's practice patterns continue as they are," says Fitch, "employees there could be approaching a breaking point." (See the most common hospital mishaps...
...Reports like the Milliman Index, however, point up the just as troubling relation between high health-care costs and low-wage demographics like Miami's. Cities and regions with higher income and education rates tend to have access to more efficient health-care plans. In turn, they bear health-care costs that, while they might seem high in places like New York City (which is second behind Miami in the Milliman Index), are usually more in line with what residents can afford and require relatively less out-of-pocket contributions. Locales like Miami, by contrast, often offer residents "less access...
...waters of Singapore, the world's busiest port. "The pile up of ships in the Straits is a reflection of the collapse in trade until the early part of this year," says P.K. Basu, Asia economist for the Daiwa Institute of Research. Mirroring that drop is the Baltic Dry Index, which tracks the average cost of shipping a container of goods. It has plummeted more than any stock market, from a peak of 11,000 in mid-2008 to roughly 2,600 today...
...Though maritime trade has been picking up recently due to a resumption in Chinese commodity imports, pushing up the Baltic Dry Index from its lows, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore estimates there are about 150 ships in the vicinity of the island-state, although the number of vessels could be significantly higher than the official figures. That's in addition to 400 to 500 ships that are using Singapore's port at any given time. Most of the vessels outside Singapore are idle and have been stripped to skeleton crews of three or four in contrast...