Description: Discussion about career events for an actuary working on health care reform

Description: Essay discussing that the two factors that affect healthcare cost are costs and the fact that people lack coverage.

Description: Developing a formal strategy to guide the SOA’s activities with respect to public policy-related topics is underway. Recent experience shows that non-partisan contributions through the SOA’s research are already adding value to important public policy discussions.

Description: Rhode Island’s unique “global Medicaid waiver” pursues a potentially dangerous national policy trend: long-term care LTC rebalancing without strong eligibility controls. Resulting cost overruns could seriously damage the state’s social safety net. To maximize the global waiver’s opportunity, minimize its danger, and become a LTC financing model for the country, policy makers need to recognize the issues discussed in this report and pursue the recommended additional research and analysis.

Description: A proposal to address provider payment issues by gradually moving to accountable care organizations. Capitations would be risk-adjusted, non-capitated costs would be covered by hospitalization fund and stoploss, incentives for quality & effective preventive care would be tied to the amount remaining in the fund, and government involvement would be through incentives rather than mandate.

Description: Letter by Concerned Actuary Group, printed in the January 2010 issue of In The Public Interest, in response to August 6 Review and Outlook Section editorial titled “Obamacare’s Real Price Tag.”

Description: The editors of Health Watch have made health care reform the focus of the Sepctember 2009 issue, and provide an introduction to the issue's contents.

Description: Updates on the efforts of the Academy’s health practice council. its work groups and task forces, to educate and influence health care policymakers on issues including principles for health care reform, Medicare, wellness programs, and solvency.

Description: Shannon Brownlee shares her perspectives on the current health care crisis, including: inconsistent treatment patterns across providers and geographic regions, providers lacking evidence-based guidelines, the need for better independent clinical research to establish those guidelines, and the limits to consumerism's potential to fix the crisis.

Description: Updates on the efforts of the Academy’s health practice council. its work groups and task forces, to conduct research and educate health care policymakers on issues including principles for market reform, individual insurance, and risk factors.