Description: A preview of the articles in the May 2009 issue of Long Term Care News, with a theme of focusing on the pure fundamentals of actuarial work.

Description: A review of a book by a former Commissioner of Social Security, in which he shares his thoughts on what Social Security is, the new law, the financing, the benefits, the types of employment covered, the benefit amounts, the retirement test, and several subsidiary topics.

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 health care reform, Medicare, loss ratios, premium review, reinsurance, benefit and eligibility changes, exchanges, and risk based capital.

Description: Editor letter about what constitutes a good Health Watch article and summary of articles.

Description: Chairperson’s column discussing a few of the important initiatives of the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: This article is about how entrepreneur independent business owners can solve their day-to-day frustrations and problems with a simple and useful process for setting goals and building a plan to meet those goals.

Description: Recently completed research projects from the Society of Actuaries.

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: This article is a brief overview of what the Health Actuarial Research Initiative, HARI, is and what the participants in HARI will be doing. HARI is a project formed by the Society of Actuaries that will develop actuarial research studying changes in health care systems.