Description: Panel discussion focusing on managing health care costs.

Description: Description and specifications for the health section's article-writing contest on the topic of provider payment reform.

Description: Essay discussing that the two factors that affect healthcare cost are costs and the fact that people lack coverage.

Description: Retirees and their advisors should construct diversified portfolios of retirement income, allocating among various retirement income classes that include Social Security, annuities, and systematic withdrawals from invested assets. This essay discusses the pros and cons of various retirement income generators and the issues with constructing retirement income portfolios.

Description: Arguments for establishing a monetary system based on an aggregate commodity standard.

Description: A review of the 2009 Health Spring Meeting, which included speakers & sessions on the future of the SOA, U.S. health care reform, claims data issues & improvements, predictive modeling, underwriting principles, employer stoploss, cost trends, LTD & disability, and mental health parity regulations.

Description: Excellent big picture view for planning a social insurance system with pay-as-you-go, required self-funded, and voluntary plans.

Description: A proposal to address provider payment issues by gradually moving to accountable care organizations. Capitations would be risk-adjusted, non-capitated costs would be covered by hospitalization fund and stoploss, incentives for quality & effective preventive care would be tied to the amount remaining in the fund, and government involvement would be through incentives rather than mandate.

Description: Panel discussion of prospects for cost containment of, and alternatives to, fee-for-service health care, and management of health care under national health insurance. Discussion points include cost containment devices, HMOs, economic impact, cost escalation, self-insurance, stop-loss, claims administration, loss of state premium taxes, and Phase 3 tax problems under NH1.

Description: Report on the proceedings of the 2010 Long Term Care Think Tank Session, whose goals were to discuss the major issues and challenges facing the LTC insurance industry, and to formulate action items and initiatives to help the industry move ahead. Focus was on understanding the needs & affordability capabilities of different market segments, the limited variety of product designs, shrinking distribution force, regulation and public policy, implications of the CLASS Act, and ideas for educating consumers and marketing products.