Description: Feature article discussing limited benefit health plans as alternative options to address a national crisis—health care for the working uninsured.

Description: The article discovers that mortality is higher for females than for males at higher ages, and suggests "stress" as the explanation. It then discusses mental illness research, including recovery therefrom.

Description: Alternative sources of learning available for free or at low cost if you wish to round out your F&F education about machine learning, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms and the millennia of biological advances we draw from when we use these techniques.

Description: This article describes a method that can be useful when re-fitting a risk score model to a population of only moderate size. Learn how to use concepts like ridge regression to train a model with partial credibility.

Description: Article is a detailed discussion of the Risk Management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (RMORSA) Model Act that was recently approved by the NAIC and is being adopted by legislatures across the country.

Description: Health Watch, Issue 79, December 2015, Health Watch

Description: Chairperson's note to readers.

Description: This paper discusses the need for actuarial judgment to be used in conjunction with statistical analysis in the calculation of incurred but not reported IBNR claim reserves.

Description: In an effort to build a bridge between epidemiological and actuarial modeling, this paper analyzes possible financial arrangements made against expenses resulted from medical treatments given to insured patients. Based on classical compartment models, the first part of this paper designs insurance policies for susceptible participants facing the risk of infection and formulates the financial obligations of both parties using actuarial methodology. For practical purposes, the second part employs a variety of numerical methods for calculating premiums and reserves. The last part illustrates the methods by designing insurance products for the Great Plague in Eyam and the SARS Epidemic in Hong Kong.

Description: This paper presents a parsimonious 11-parameter model that explains the pattern of mortality for the female and male mortality rates of the 1975–80 Select and Ultimate Basic Tables. This parametric model is useful because it can predict the select mortality rates beyond the 15-year select period and because it can predict the select rates for issue ages greater than 70 years old. From the Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1994, Vol. 46.