News You Can Use: A sampling of health, retirement headlines

The National Center for Policy Analysis creates a calculator that shows 401(k) participants the savings lost from taking a plan loan, revealing that a 35-year-old that borrows $30,000 over five years actually loses more than $190,000 in the process. (Could the new tool be a shout out?)

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a proposal that would give an exception to the comparability rules that allows, but does not require, employers to make larger HSA contributions to non-highly compensated workers than highly compensated workers. The full text of the proposal is here. Read it and let the IRS know what you think; the public comment period ends Oct. 13.

Take this to your next meeting with your CFO. A nonprofit health advocacy group offers hard numbers that wellness programs work, estimating that a $10 per person per year investment in wellness could yield a $2.8 billion (yes, with a ‘B’) savings in health care costs over two years.

Less invasive, less costly? As minimally invasive alternatives for gastric bypass, hysterectomy and other surgeries emerge, employers consider promoting them to cut costs surrounding hospitalization and lost work days.

Baby boomers won’t necessarily retire with a boom. Despite projections that the nation’s 78 million boomers will begin to retire in droves any day now, a new report from The Coyne Partnership says that predictions of a retirement tsunami will in reality be more like a trickle. Specifically, researchers suggest the growth of the retirement market will be about 3% every year for the next 25, and that the number of retirees in 2017 could be as little as 36 million – about the same as today.