Description: Discussion of the implications of the newly unveiled health care reform proposal by Senator Baucus. Key issues include abandonment of the CLASS Act, inclusion of LTC in cafeteria plans, funding and tax concerns, individual mandate, privacy concerns, play-or-pay employer mandate, impact on Medicare and Medicaid, and gridlock in the legislative finalization process.

Description: Summarizes two Social Security Administration Actuarial Notes by the author. One compares actual experience under the Medicare program for the first full year of operation with the cost estimates that were made early in 1965. The second analyzes the annual death rates of the United States population aged 65 and over, before and after Medicare, for fiscal years 1961-68.

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 principles for reform, Medicare, the individual insurance market, and risk factors.

Description: Panelists discuss changes to the Medicare program being implemented by the Medicare Modernization Act. Topics include Medicare Advantage and Part D bidding and actuarial equivalence. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 30, No. 3, Session 101

Description: Panel discusses the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare failed agreement, but still examines the draft of the report, as well as other proposals for changes in Medicare. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 2.

Description: At this presentation from Session 46PD of the SOA 1996 Colorado Springs Meeting, the panelists discuss sources of profit/potential risks for a company entering into Medicare or Medicaid risk contracts. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 22, No. 2.

Description: Member benefit newsletter for the Social Insurance and Public Finance Section of the SOA.

Description: This presentation from Session 98PD of the SOA 1997 Washington Annual Meeting discusses the reforms that have been evolving in the Medicare program, the participation of Health Maintenance Organizations and the insurance industry in the managed Medicare market, and the response of Medicare enrollees to these programs. Both Medicare Risk and Medicare Select programs are discussed. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.

Description: The Health Section Council HSC of the Society of Actuaries approved and funded a project to study the cost impact on plan sponsor retiree pharmacy costs when Medicare Part D is implemented in 2006. Actuarial & Health Care Solutions, LLC AHCS was retained by HSC to perform the project. This report provides estimated savings for several of the options that will be available to plan sponsors after implementation of the Medicare prescription drug program.

Description: This article describes the basic methodology and assumptions used in the estimates for the SMI trust fund under the intermediate assumptions. From Pension Section News, September 2004, Issue No. 56.