Description: Updates on the efforts of the Academy’s health practice council. its work groups and task forces, to educate health care policymakers on issues including health care reform, Medicare, loss ratios, premium review, reinsurance, benefit and eligibility changes, exchanges, and risk based capital.

Description: This article discusses what actuaries see as ideal components of a health care reform package with an emphasis on cost control, efficiency, elimination of fraud and reduction of errors.

Description: A suggestion to review and reassess LTC pricing of the last three decades, in light of dangerously inadequate ratesetting in the early years, and the NAIC's introduction of a model rate stability law.

Description: Corin Chapman explores the many perspectives to consider when determining appropriate insurance regulation.

Description: Stakeholders in a specific state (Minnesota) were interviewed about the potential value -- and obstacles -- of a catastrophic backstop program to handle long term care (LTC) financing needs. The design would entail a payroll deduction which would produce a fund to pay LTC expenses once a deductible period (of 1 to 4 years, depending on income) was reached. This design was believed to encourage enrollees to cover the front end better than done today, whether by private insurance or other means.

Description: Research report sponsored by SOA to model and compare projected costs of different proposals for a Medicare prescription drug coverage plan. 3 types of costs are studied: net benefit cost estimates per member per month, continuance table data, and projected annual costs to the government over 10 years for two selected plan designs.

Description: Family members who care for people with dementia need a wide range of support services to help them do the important work of care giving at home.

Description: A consideration of the issues involved in adding long-term care provisions to the social security system in France, and how the conditions differ from those in the U.S.

Description: Report on the activities of the Academy’s health practice council and its work groups.

Description: An overview of the Medicare Supplement landscape and the critical factors for successfully pricing and managing this product line amidst the challenges that exist.