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

Description: This article provides an overview of behavioral economic theory as it relates to health and welfare insurance plans and provides summaries of two sample applications of the theories: enrollment in health insurance exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and product design considerations in light of vast health illiteracy.

Description: This article from The Actuary, April 1971, volume 5, Issue 4 details a national report on health care. Most of the Report of the 1970 National Health Forum is given over to the formal papers and prepared commentaries thereon that served to stimulate discussion at the Forum. The papers themselves amount to statements by proponents of what were perceived to be three alternatives in the financing of health care and three alternatives in the organization of health care.

Description: Obesity is poised to overtake smoking as the leading preventable cause of death. What parallels can be drawn between public and reinsurance industry responses to these two lifestyle choices? Swiss Re investigates.

Description: MACRA not only impact providers, it will impact the entire healthcare market. MACRA published studies and commentary to date have primarily focused on providers, with the majority of the information addressing the impacts to clinicians. However, our investigation indicates MACRA has far reaching impacts to payers as well as providers. MACRA is impacting each geographic market and line of business in a unique way, and health payers will have multiple strategic decisions to consider given the changing market dynamics.

Description: This article discusses the idea of controlling health care costs through wellness. The author states that it has already been clearly demonstrated that actuaries practicing wellness produce more accurate valuations and earnings forecasts, are more skillful in product pricing and design, and are more popular with government examiners, accountants and even agents.

Description: This article talks about the ultimate health care cost trend rate ssumption in retiree medical liability valuation work. Issue No. 59

Description: In one way or another, COVID-19 has affected everyone’s lives in theUnited Kingdom, with increased evidence of the magnitude of the direct and indirect impacts on health and wellbeing becoming more widely available. Recently, it has been predicted that 10 million people will require new or additional mental health support services in England as a direct result of the pandemic, for the next three to five years.

Description: Feature article discussing the high cost of prescription medicines in Canada.

Description: This paper provides an overview of the employee benefit package, provides data and discusses issues with regard to cost variation, and shows how this data can be combined to provide an understanding of the variation for different employee benefit packages.