Description: Republicans have promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act for years. Now that they have power, what will Republican health care reform look like?

Description: Chairperson's Corner discussing actuarial principles and what we as actuaries value in our work.

Description: Conditions and required solvency standards of federal waiver to PSOs to provide Medicare+Choice products. Effect on providers, beneficiaries and employers. Issue No. 36

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: Discussion of the implications of the newly unveiled health care reform proposal by Senator Baucus. Key issues include abandonment of the CLASS Act, inclusion of LTC in cafeteria plans, funding and tax concerns, individual mandate, privacy concerns, play-or-pay employer mandate, impact on Medicare and Medicaid, and gridlock in the legislative finalization process.

Description: A discussion of fraud and abuse in the Medicare payment system, and steps to address these problems.

Description: This article discusses future benchmarks of Medicare and Medicare's rising costs and its relativity to the actuarial profession.

Description: Updates on the efforts of the Academy’s health practice council. its work groups and task forces, to educate health care policymakers on issues including principles for reform, Medicare, the individual insurance market, and risk factors.

Description: Risk adjusters were first used for the Y2K reimbursements to Medicare+Choice laws. How did plans fare? What was the financial impact to the Medicare program? What changes are expected for the future? From Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 26, No. 1. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 26, No. 1: Las Vegas Spring Meeting, May 22-24, 2000, Session 125PD.

Description: This paper offers basic, economic and actuarial ideas to improve the balance of cost, access to treatment and quality over time.