Description: This study was sponsored by the Society of Actuaries Health Section. This paper explores the relative significance of aging as a determinant of financial cost of health care beyond age 50, with particular attention to the effect for ages 65 and older. The paper presents concepts of aging factors and aging curves, which define relative values between ages for utilization or cost of health care services. General conclusions are drawn from Medicare data that utilization and cost differ by age, but that aging factors vary across services and may be less significant at very old ages. The author then turns to the question of measuring the significance of an aging curve assumption and what accuracy is lost in the simpler alternative of a single value across an age range.

Description: There is a wide range of literature on aging and health care. We sample this literature and find it fits into the subcategories of theoretical aging, medical significance of aging, treatment of the elderly, and resource allocation to the elderly. Themes are that financial arrangements can cause inefficient and ineffective care and that care guidelines need to developed specifically for the elderly rather than extrapolating guidelines for younger patients.

Description: This session discussed about expected trends in medical care costs, changes in Medicare reimbursement practices and their short- and long-term effects, the emerging responsibility for providing long-term care, rise of managed health care, new and old participants, selection issues, multiple options, and small group market.

Description: This session is about the Health insurance has become an important issue in this year's presidential election campaign. What effect will this have on the likelihood of major health-care reform, on public expectations about rights to health care, about perceptions of health insurers, etc? From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 18, No. 4A.

Description: This is the abstract for the paper, The Boomers Are Coming: A Total Cost of Care Model of the Impact of Population Aging on the Cost of Chronic and Acute Conditions in the United States. The complete paper is not available online.

Description: This session is about rationing health care. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 18, No. 4A.

Description: This article compares the Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) market to the commercial individual market exchanges included in the Affordable Care Act. PDP carrier actions to date could help predict certain aspects of the exchange market.

Description: An edited written interview with two actuaries and a public health professional on issues related to the intersection between the two fields.

Description: This session is about the details of the inception and implementation of the Oregon Health Plan. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 18, No. 1B.

Description: This analysis provides an overview of the functional components of the managed care system. It discusses the market forces underlying the United States’ system for health care financing and delivery and suggests how market forces impact the health care industry. The analysis focuses on societal goals for health care delivery and on managed care’s effectiveness in enabling achievement of those goals. The analysis develops and uses an innovative model developed to summarize the complex interplay among the many stakeholders, or participants, in the health care system. The model provides a framework for analysis of the many relationships among stakeholders. The analysis also highlights current issues in managed care, particularly the barriers that impede collaboration among stakeholders.