Description: Introduction to population health, a collaborative discipline that seeks to leverage all the determinants of health personal behaviors, medical care and the public health infrastructure, as well as the social and economic context at the community and national level to maximize the health of populations.

Description: The Society is taking a hard look at its members’ needs and our future as a profession. Two recent studies have focused attention on the building of our future: Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Actuary and Report of the Task Force on Strengthening the Profession. Both reports discuss the importance of our profession in health care matters. But, neither report is designed to address the practical issues involved with building toward our future in health care.

Description: A study of disability experience examines cost burden and degree of disability, and how these measures vary across different subpopulations. This article summarizes a presentation given at the Society of Actuaries’ Living to 100: Survival to Advanced Ages International Symposium held on Jan. 7–9, 2008 in Orlando, Florida. An abstract of the author's paper was presented in the September 2008 issue of Long-Term Care News.

Description: An examination of LTCI rate increases from three different perspectives: the insurance company, the policyholder, and the insurance department.

Description: A proposal to reform current health care market, from a 'preferred payer' system, in which Medicare and Medicaid pay less than the true cost while others must then pay more, to a 'value for money' system. This would be achieved by requiring providers to bill all patients the same rate for the same services, with a standard bundling format to make all providers' rate differences transparent. Differences between billed charges and what Medicare pays would be made up by the Medicare patient, rather than subsidized by those outside of Medicare.

Description: The medical scheme approach adopted by several African countries has failed to meet the needs of those in informal employment and rural communities. This is partly due to affordability amongst these individuals as well as a lack of awareness of how healthcare financing products work. Community based healthcare organisations have achieved greater levels of success in this regard by carefully incorporating the peculiarities of communities in benefit design and involving community members in the management of these healthcare solutions. There are lessons to be garnered from the countries where these have been implemented with some level of success. Even as countries aim towards universal health coverage, observing the unique needs of different communities within a country is essential to ensure resources are utilised efficiently and that healthcare needs are targeted effectively.

Description: An analysis of health insurance cost and benefit trends using January 1, 2011 data from state employee medical plan renewals.

Description: Article from The Actuary, May 1971 – volume 5 - Issue 5 that talks about the various ways of constructing systems and suggests the desirability of establishing measures of efficiency for the alternatives so that we may rationally choose among them.