Description: Feature article discussing the impact of health care reform on the direct insurance market and the reinsurance market.

Description: Medical stop-loss reinsurance continues to play a vital role in containing employers’ health care costs. Managing general underwriters [MGUs], who originally handled these programs, have lost market share to large direct writers. This article discusses how health care reform and highly disciplined underwriting tools offer growth opportunities to MGUs.

Description: Medical Insurance in Latin America: Lessons Learned. Issue No. 42.

Description: Gathering information and assess risks of Managed Care Networks. Looking at cost and service areas. Issue No. 44.

Description: Specific and aggregate stop loss insurance reinsurance is a product that has unique characteristics. The product is a special type of policy that covers employers or their self-funded employee benefit plans for larger health claims. The product has some unique reserving challenges for the health/reinsurance actuary.

Description: In the last 10 to 15 years, new health insurance programs have proliferated in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. The reason for this boom has been, basically, the need for insurance companies to identify and implement new or additional lines of insurance business in order to match or exceed the increased numbers of competitors now working in these markets. This is combined with the stronger reinsurance capacity that these insurance companies had access to, which can be attributed to the need for increased reinsurance protection that arose a number of years ago, when many insurance and reinsurance companies were seeking larger volumes of businesses based on the expected growth potential of the region.

Description: This article talks about ASOP No. 11, The Treatment of Reinsurance Transactions Reflecting Life or Health Insurance Risks in Financial Statements. Section 3.5, Additional Liabilities.

Description: Medical Insurance in Latin America: Lessons Learned by Jeffrey D. Miller from Health Section News, January 2002, Issue No. 42.

Description: This article discusses the closed nature of the Brazilian reinsurance market due to the IRB. The Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil is owned 50% by the 15 insurance companies that are licensed to do business in Brazil and 50% by the Government of Brazil, but the Government owns 100% of the voting shares. All reinsurance business must be transacted with and via the IRB. The process, opportunities and risks associated with this scheme are explored.

Description: This article enumerates many important considerations for a managing general underwriter(MGU) desiring to contract with an insurance carrier to issue and service provider excess of loss policies covering catastrophic medical risks assumed by accountable care organizations (ACOs).