Description: Essay suggests reforms of the U.S. health care system to promote financial soundness, broader access, and efficient operations. These reforms require that each participant in the system – individuals, employers, providers, insurers, and government – give a little.

Description: This paper provides an outline of three potential initiatives that may be undertaken by the government and the private sector. The first initiative aims at reducing the cost of health care at the provider level. The second initiative provides a means to improve the quality of health care. The third initiative creates a constructive basis for identifying medical best practices to enhance quality.

Description: Panelists discuss major reforms of health care financing and delivery systems around the world. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: This paper offers basic, economic and actuarial ideas to improve the balance of cost, access to treatment and quality over time.

Description: This presentation is a Health Section meeting from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. The session leader, the incoming chair of the section, covers administrative matters, and then the next speaker addresses a newly completed research project, sponsored by the Society and Health Section, on the variation by duration in small group medical insurance claim costs. The speakers then discuss current developments in small group reform, and the various parties involved, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners [NAIC], and the Health Insurance Association of America [HIAA], and the work that has been done, including modeling to address the impact of a small group reform mechanism. The speakers discuss how the various parties' objectives can differ. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4B.

Description: Panelists discuss key aspects of recent and pending laws and the cost and design implications on group health plans. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: The Society is taking a hard look at its members’ needs and our future as a profession. Two recent studies have focused attention on the building of our future: Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Actuary and Report of the Task Force on Strengthening the Profession. Both reports discuss the importance of our profession in health care matters. But, neither report is designed to address the practical issues involved with building toward our future in health care.

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.

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: Why is it that two competent actuaries making reasonable assumptions can arrive at very different conclusions when evaluating the impact of proposed health care reforms? Are the answers really as different as they appear to be on the surface? This presentation from Session 137IF of the SOA 1996 Orlando Annual Meeting outlines and highlights some of the key actuarial issues that arise in the course of these analyses. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 22, No. 3.