Description: Full version of Pension Section News, March 2000, Issue No. 42.

Description: The Canadian public health care delivery system continues to experience growing needs for increased funding. The total health care delivery system today costs Canadians $98 billion a year or about 9.7 percent of GDP. Of that total cost, 71 percent is paid by the government, which means the taxpayers. While that may pale in comparison to the costs in the U.S., it does make the Canadian system one of the five most expensive health care delivery systems in the world. While today’s cost pressures are of major concern, of even more concern are the costs being projected by many participants in the current health care debate for the period when the Baby Boom makes higher demands on the Canadian health care delivery system. Traditional projection methods, however, do not differentiate between the elderly who survive the year versus those who die as to their use of health care systems. This paper first looks at the impact that this differentiation could have on projected costs. Second, the paper looks at the impact that the wide use of Advance Directives [also called Living Wills] might have on future health care costs and some of the issues surrounding their use. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 2004, Vol. 1.

Description: Full version of The Actuary Newsletter Volume 35, Number 10 - December 2001

Description: The recent Forecast 2000 forum on the environment held in Toronto dealt with such issues as increased taxes and higher insurance premiums to cover costs of natural disasters.

Description: There is growing evidence of a positive correlation between income levels and longevity. In short, high-income earners live longer. That also means that high-income earners get larger retirement-income security benefits from Social Security. This correlation raises a number of questions: if Social Security contributions are a level percentage of earnings, and high-income earners live longer and receive larger Social Security benefits, then is Social Security regressive? If higher-income actually causes enhanced longevity, then would providing more Social Security benefits enhance population life expectancy? This paper analyzes both the OASDI system of the United States and the Canada/Quebec Pension Plans in Canada to see if these systems are 'a good deal' and whether they are regressive or progressive as defined above. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1998 Vol. 1.

Description: Full version of Small Talk Newsletter, April 2000, Issue No. 15.

Description: Our panel discusses research conducted by the SOA's committee on post-retirement needs and risks current trends in retirement, including phased and partial retirement special issues for different types of industries and employers and pension and health benefit design issues surrounding phased retirement. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 3, Session 10pd.

Description: Presents a theoretical basis for a computerized methodology for estimating biological age - a measure of time to death.

Description: Full version of International Section News, February 2000, Issue No. 21.

Description: This paper examines the following three questions by reviewing literature that identifies and evaluates the tradeoffs among annuitization and self-managed drawdown strategies: 1. How DO Retirees Draw Down their Financial Savings? 2. How COULD Retirees Draw Down their Financial Savings? 3. How SHOULD Retirees Draw Down their Financial Savings?