Description: Healthcare costs have been rising faster than general inflation for many years. Early models that predicted this past pattern projected healthcare expenditure growth that continued to outpace total expenditure growth leading to the fallacious position that the whole of the US economy would ultimately be consumed by healthcare. This paper presents a long term healthcare trends resource model, prepared for the Society of Actuaries by Professor Thomas Getzen, that includes capacity constraints to ensure the long-term projection is rational. The motivation for creation of the model was driven by its potential usage as a resource for the estimation of reportable liabilities for retiree healthcare benefits as specified under FAS 106 and GASB 45 accounting statements.

Description: This document provides an explanation of the Health Company Pandemic Modeling tool excel workbook and gives step by step instructions for companies to enter specific scenarios and assumptions.

Description: Paper by Max Rudolph for the SOA on historical views on systemic risk and its applications.

Description: The Health Section Research Team is pleased to make available the following research study and Excel model that provide a framework for estimating the financial impact of health plan provider network risk. The research was conducted by the Denver office of Milliman, Inc. The Excel workbook allows the user to assess cost implications of aspects of network risk under various assumptions. The assumptions in the workbook can be altered by the user and be applied to test a range of scenarios.

Description: This paper considers the question of whether or not the growth in the size of financial statements witnessed over the last several years has yielded an increase in the quality of disclosure around issues of financial risk and to what extent this disclosure is satisfying the perceived needs of readers of the financial statements, as represented by the investment analyst community. The question is addressed by presenting the results of research consisting of 1 the review and analysis of the disclosures addressing issues of financial risk contained within financial statements issued from 1999 to 2004 by 25 major insurance companies operating in the US and 2 the interviewing of 5 insurance industry analysts to understand their perceptions of what is good and bad about financial disclosure practices of life insurance companies.

Description: This project shows how to use agent-based models to simulate the behaviors of agents in complex health systems.

Description: A research report that first defines ERM and provides the results of an applicable literature search with hyperlinks and then describes the current state of Enterprise Risk Management practices for health organizations. Areas covered: 1. Operational Risks. 2. Balance sheet risks. 3. Pricing discipline. 4. Asset risks. 5. Learnings. 6. Emerging risks.

Description: 1959 SOA Regional Meetings in Atlanta and San Francisco. These discussions on pensions examined the advantages of funding deferred profit sharing plans through a life insurance company and the problems involved in final average retirement plans.

Description: This section presents book reviews and summarizes recent publications: 'Measurement of Mortality' by Gershenson, 'Decision and Influence Processes in Private Pension Plans' by McNulty, Jr., 'Economic Assumptions Underlying the Medium-Range Projections of the Federal OASDI Trust Funds' by Lukaczer, 'Eighth Actuarial Valuation of the Assets and Liabilities under the Railroad Retirement Act as of 12/31/1959' by Railroad Retirement Board, 'Life Insurance' 9th edition by Maclean, 'Evaluation of a Single Visit Cardiovascular Examination' by US National Health Survey, 'Guide to Health Insurance Underwriting' by Tilton and Yochem, 'Duration of Limitation of Activity Due to Chronic Conditions, US, July 1959 - June 1969' by US National Health Survey.

Description: This paper was written at the suggestion of the Education and Examination Committee which expressed a need for review of recent developments in methods of dividend distribution. It may well be argued that there are no really new developments in the theory of distribution, but merely changes in practice represented by the introduction of various refinements in the dividend distribution process. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1959, Vol. 11, No. 31.