Description: Panelists discuss major reforms of health care financing and delivery systems around the world. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Presenter describes many of the desirable characteristics of a health care financing system, and alternative health care financing systems as they are found in other parts of the world. The advantages and disadvantages of each alternative system are also discussed. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Rising drug—and, to a lesser extent, health care—costs in Canada are creating long-term challenges for not only governments and employers across Canada but for individuals as well, with no easy answers.

Description: This is the abstract for the paper, The Need for Coordinated Care for Depression, and the Need for Creative Innovation by Stephen P. Melek, FSA.

Description: Panel discusses the effects of reduced payment levels to many Medicare managed care organizations. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Most health care delivered in the United States is based on the acute care model: it is episodic has a beginning, middle and end usually the patient recovers and interventions are designed to target a specific pathophysiologic abnormality. Chronic disease care, in contrast, often has no clear beginning and no end the focus is on managing over the long term with prevention of progression and complications. Further, many chronic diseases “travel together” comorbidities: for example, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease CAD, heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral arterial disease and renal dysfunction are often found together.

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: The article looks at potential changes in care provider demographics that could ultimately have an impact on the cost of long term care services.

Description: The article described recent major advances in measurement of health programs and providers in the public and private sector.