2025 SOA Health Meeting Virtual Event: Session 4D: Actuaries Transforming Healthcare - Improving Childbirth Outcomes and Population Health -07.23.25- Recording

The U.S. health care system, often driven by profit, creates barriers in access, quality, and transparency, contributing to preventable tragedies, which include the devastating loss of a child. In this session, we will focus on avoidable injuries and deaths during childbirth, highlighting key driving factors and systemic failures. >
>Over the past several years, interest in out-of-hospital birth options has rapidly grown. Presenters will compare health outcomes of home and birthing center deliveries with hospital births, incorporating published research and new actuarial analyses. We will also examine differences between the U.S. and European midwifery education requirements, practices, and regulations, which contribute to pregnancy outcomes. >
>Actuaries play a critical role in driving change. One actuary's analysis reveals that targeted changes in insurance policies can save lives far more swiftly than legal or regulatory actions. This compelling presentation brings together an important diversity of perspectives: an actuary and near-death pregnancy survivor, a former nurse midwife and birthing center owner, and an OBGYN professor who has extensively studied and published papers on out-of-hospital birth outcomes. Together, they explore actionable solutions to reduce maternal and neonatal losses and improve health care systems for future families.>