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Originally Posted by ZenGum
I notice there is a dip each year around August/September.
Is that because health expenses are lower then, or is that when premiums get jacked up for the next year?
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All the companies I've ever worked for have done their open enrollment and insurance plan changes at the start of the new year.
But it's a weird data set, now that you mention it. The cruxes of each line seem to happen definitively at months 3, 6, and 9, as if this chart is based on quarterly earnings reports but for some reason doesn't get to include the fourth quarter report in December each year. Missing data aside, this would mean that the September number is probably the amount spent in the months of June, July, and August combined.
I can see a few possible contributing factors for why summer would have lower costs. One, people don't want to screw up their vacation time with anything elective. Two, road accidents are down since all the ice and snow are gone. Three, people are holding off to see how the annual deductible/out-of-pocket numbers are looking towards the end of the year. Late Fall is the time to hurry up and squeeze in any elective procedures they've been waffling on, before everything rolls back to zero in January.