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: The first Intercompany Study of the Long-Term Care LTC Experience 1984-1991 Committee has been completed. It is the first public report on experience of lives insured under private insurance plans, and covers morbidity, claim characteristics, persistency and home care.

Description: Commentary on the Actuarial Profile Survey by the Committee on Planning.

Description: The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 established the nationwide expansion of a Long–Term-Care Partnership program into which any state can choose to participate. This article describes that program and what it means for a person insured under a qualifying long-term-care insurance policy.

Description: Discusses why it is so important for actuaries to actively monitor evolving issues with taxation of life insurance companies and products, and how to monitor the issues and get involved with the process.

Description: The military retirement system is a funded, noncontributory, defined-benefit plan that includes nondisability retired pay, disability retired pay, and survivor annuity programs. This article discusses the additional benefits created by the Military Retirement Reform Act of 1986.

Description: The actuarial profession has been questioning the continued applicability of its historical paradigm and principles over the past decade. The author feels actuaries should stick with their historical strengths.

Description: There are growing concerns that the Asian bird flu virus will evolve into a form that can be transmitted from human to human, thus unleashing a new global flu pandemic. This article uses the Spanish flu epidemic and the German life insurance portfolio to analyze the additional claims expenditure due to a pandemic.

Description: This article from SOA president David Holland, speaks to the need of the actuarial profession to consistently evolve with the needs of the 21st century.

Description: The SOA’s recent work related to public policy research and an update on the General Insurance track.