Description: The Health Section chairperson discusses the past year's activity, especially the Visions for the Future of the U.S. Health Care System essay contest, and an update on the Untapped Opportunities for Actuaries in Health initiative.

Description: A consideration of the issues involved in adding long-term care provisions to the social security system in France, and how the conditions differ from those in the U.S.

Description: Family members who care for people with dementia need a wide range of support services to help them do the important work of care giving at home.

Description: Changes in CMS requirements for 2011 Medicare Part D plans aimed at reducing confusion surrounding the PDP selection process by making plan differences more visible to seniors. Carriers have responded by making the most significant changes in plan offerings since the program's inception, which is expected to result in membership shifts.

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

Description: An overview of the issues behind reimbursing providers on a bundled or packaged basis. The article presents the potential advantages offered by the proponents as well as the criticisms and obstacles to implementing this type of payment system.

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.