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: In this interview Dr. Reinhardt shares his thoughts on the role he believes actuaries should take in the health care system reforms.

Description: Recently completed experience studies and research studies from the SOA.

Description: Essay offers a vision of health care where everyone is covered, everyone is eligible, receives fair pricing, receives vital information and is taxed the same.

Description: Discussion of direct primary care and how it helps with several challenges in health care today. DPC improves care coordination, improves outcomes, improves doctor and patient satisfaction, and reduces spending. DPC successes promote the view that primary care should not be covered by insurance; rather, it should be paid for directly.

Description: A follow-up to the 2012 article “A Global Perspective of the Health Insurance Market” about teaching a course at the Columbia University Masters in Actuarial Science program. The course provided an overview of the health care insurance industry.

Description: Panel discussion of alternative approaches to the design of reserve standards, to include those topics discussed in several recent papers and committee reports.

Description: Discussion of LTC insurance product developments being spurred by recent demographic and regulatory trends, especially combination products such as LTC benefits with disability income, annuities, and life insurance. Several viable product styles are considered, along with the pros and cons of each.

Description: The recent outbreak of the Zika virus (ZIKV) in Brazil and in at least 29 other countries and territories is a stark reminder of the risks associated with new, emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. This article is intended to provide essential background information on the Zika virus in order to assist insurers’ understanding and risk assessment of the situation. Insurers must continually stay abreast of these risks and rapidly assess the potential impact on morbidity and mortality – often with only preliminary scientific or actuarial data

Description: Disease management DM is increasingly encountered in health plans and employer groups as a health care intervention targeted to individuals with chronic diseases chronics. The untested assumption is that without DM, the chronic and non-chronic trends are identical. From Financing Chronic Care Monograph, M-HB05-1.