Description: This paper discusses the the continuing cost of health insurance coverage represents a major problem for most of us. However, the long-term continuation of the excess growth rate of the health care economy verses the rest of the economy has the potential makings of a major crisis.

Description: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is moving forward to implement a new regulatory requirement that requires U.S. insurers to perform an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA). Before developing a response to the ORSA requirement, insurers will want to understand its genesis and the underlying rationale for it, as well as its implications. This essay provides an overview of the evolution and rationale for ORSA, as well as practical implications for insurers as they begin to design an ORSA process. Part of the essay collection "Risk Metrics for Decision Making and ORSA"

Description: Highlights from the 8th Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference held in March 2008, consisting of 56 sessions covering a range of long-term care insurance LTCI topics each with a track-specific focus.

Description: The first objective is to highlight the key trends and projections that describe the magnitude and scope of the aging world in the 21st century. The second is to identify some of the key issues that countries in the developed and developing world will have to face as a consequence of population aging. The third objective is to emphasize the triumph and opportunities of an aging world, providing a counterpoint to the prevailing notion that the aging of societies is a catastrophe, leading only to undue burden on future generations.

Description: Update on Health Section research projects and topics, including health care reform, complexity science, and strategic planning.

Description: An update on the China insurance industry and the issues surrounding the admission of foreign insurance companies

Description: Essay where payers desiring to optimize health gains per dollar spent should avoid “across the board” cost sharing, and instead implement a “value based” design that removes barriers/provides incentives to encourage desired behaviors for patients and providers.

Description: Compares how other industries (in this case, Fast Food) researches and tests new products. Provides examples of how the insurance industry can efficiently research and test new product concepts before going to market.

Description: A recent study sheds light on the measurement and implications of the relationship between increased morbidity and declining disability. The results were not consistent across all populations. This study of the compression of morbidity is part of a wider project called the M-project, led by the four authors, which aims to explore the demographic factors leading to an increase in the adult longevity, investigate the phenomenon called the compression of mortality and develop a new methodological approach to longevity analysis with focus on the modal age at death M.