Description: The author gives his opinions of the cause of the health care financing crisis and ever increasing health care costs.

Description: This editorial reviews the benefits of managed care, notes the public pressure to relax controls around this system and the expected cost impact of doing so.

Description: Summary of the National Conference on Medical Costs, held in Washington, D.C. on June 28-29, 1967.

Description: Since 1942, Metropolitan Life has been producing tables that show the weights at which mortality is lowest. Their purpose is to promote sound concepts of weight control. This article discusses Metropolitan's 1983 height and weight tables.

Description: In 1983, a poultry virus hit the jackpot in Pennsylvania. While making a copy of its genetic material, the virus made a tiny error. Because of that error, it began producing a slightly altered protein which allowed the normally benign organism to spread beyond its usual residence in chicken lungs and intestines. Soon it was burrowing into other parts of the birds’ bodies - including the nervous system, where it multiplied rapidly and began to cause disease. Could something like this happen to humans?

Description: This table shows the results of an attribution of the major contributing factors to the rate of mortality improvement in cardiovascular disease between 1980 and 2000.

Description: This is an article that highlights recommended reading by the Health Practice area communications committee. The readings cover a broad subject matter from risk assessment, medical technology to uninsured.

Description: This article discusses the new Kassebaum-Kennedy bill a.k.a. HIPPA and looks at future of individual health insurance plans, which will be determined at the state level.

Description: The author takes exception to criticism from the AMA about hospital discharge guidelines as being set by actuaries when, in fact, they are set by physicians based on actual practice.

Description: This web page contains links to the following articles of interest to actuaries: 1. A July 9, 2011 New York Times editorial about recent studies suggesting that antidepressants aren’t effective after all, and 2. A March 10, 2011 Time Magazine article by Joel Stein titled, 'Data Mining: How Companies Now Know Everything About You.'