Checking In On Healthcare

Each time a doctor would come to ask me questions about my surgery the last few weeks at the hospital, I would turn the table and ask a bunch of questions about the equipment, tools and brands that stood out in their industry.

Early this year I added the $IHI (Medical Device ETF) to my 8 to 80 portfolio. Here is a 10 year chart:

(quick tip – using Koyfin.com which is free you can dig into the components of every ETF)

There are massive demographic tailwinds behind the global medical device and healthcare industry.

Here are what these tailwinds have looked like for other healthcare sectors – the $XLV, Amgen and $PPH (Big Pharma ETF):

Of course trends can end and bear markets will come along to make these pretty charts look like hell, but that does not change the fact that over the next 30-50 years a huge component of the S&P and the GDP of the USA will continue to come from the healthcare economy.

If you want to geek out and stay ahead of big trends in the healthcare industry, follow along the a16z content as they have excellent podcast on everythng from nursing to biology.

Have a great weekend.

PS – This article in the Atlanic titled ‘The Great American Eye-Exam Scam‘ was great.