Description: The chairperson reports on Health Section activities: papers by the joint workgroups with the AAA's Health Practice Council to inform the public and congressional staff, papers on capital requirements under proposed health care reform and on proposed taxing of Cadillac plans, new research on IBNR reserving methods and on measuring the quality and efficiency of health care delivery systems.

Description: The big event of 2023 is the launch of multiple Humira biosimilars, which began in January with the arrival of Amgen’s Amjevita on the market. The launch of Amjevita kicks off the process of changing the specialty drug marketplace in the United States. The expectation of the full impact of this big event is very hopeful, but there is still uncertainty several months after its beginning. Humira is the highest-selling drug in the world and has been since 2013 (Figure 1)—except for when COVID-19 projects temporarily surpassed it. The world is eagerly awaiting the launch of multiple biosimilar drugs to compete with Humira and hopefully bring more competitive pricing to the benefit of payers and patients everywhere.

Description: Article on the history of the Long Term Care Discussion Group, a Washington DC-based venue for discussing long-term care and related issues for over 20 years.

Description: Health care reform will require health insurers to change the way they make decisions on what to sell while remaining financially sound. The new regulatory reality of expanded access to coverage leaves insurers with fewer options for managing costs and business risk. With the introduction of risk adjustment mechanisms in the exchanges, the most profitable members will not necessarily be the lowest cost ones, but rather, the members which the health plan is relatively more effective at servicing. While Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 'PPACA' prohibits underwriting and using any health status information for denying coverage or varying the premium rates, this article describes how the use of consumer data will affect the way health insurers make decisions on what products to sell.

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

Description: Feature article from the January 2010 issue of In The Public Interest newsletter discussing reform of the U.S. health care system.

Description: This article discusses whether the health insurance is affordable given average income levels in the US.

Description: Stakeholders in a specific state (Minnesota) were interviewed about the potential value -- and obstacles -- of a catastrophic backstop program to handle long term care (LTC) financing needs. The design would entail a payroll deduction which would produce a fund to pay LTC expenses once a deductible period (of 1 to 4 years, depending on income) was reached. This design was believed to encourage enrollees to cover the front end better than done today, whether by private insurance or other means.

Description: This article is the first in a four-part series about what actuaries see as ideal components of a health care reform package. This part covers health care reform ideas explored at the Conference of Consulting Actuaries’ CCA 2009 Annual Meeting in Tucson, Ariz.

Description: An overview of the Medicare Supplement landscape and the critical factors for successfully pricing and managing this product line amidst the challenges that exist.