Description: This article compares the Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) market to the commercial individual market exchanges included in the Affordable Care Act. PDP carrier actions to date could help predict certain aspects of the exchange market.

Description: The article describes the Health Sections strategic initiative for Public Health and the role of the actuary.

Description: The article gives actuaries an introduction to Academy Health, the notable health policy research organization.

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: This article contains a condensed summary and excerpt from the fourth white paper in the Commercial Health Care: What’s Next? series.

Description: Savings from biosimilars have accelerated significantly in the past few years. There has been a number of relatively recent biosimilar launches that can help to shape our expectations of the financial impact that could result from this year’s big event. Savings from biosimilars have accelerated significantly in the past few years. There has been a number of relatively recent biosimilar launches that can help to shape our expectations of the financial impact that could result from this year’s big event.

Description: This article is focused on sustainability concerns in the ACA individual markets and what we can learn from core actuarial principles as discussed in ASOPs.

Description: An edited written interview with two actuaries and a public health professional on issues related to the intersection between the two fields.

Description: This article provides an overview of the key provisions and impacts of the Affordable Care Act's Cadillac Plan Excise Tax.

Description: There is a wide range of literature on aging and health care. We sample this literature and find it fits into the subcategories of theoretical aging, medical significance of aging, treatment of the elderly, and resource allocation to the elderly. Themes are that financial arrangements can cause inefficient and ineffective care and that care guidelines need to developed specifically for the elderly rather than extrapolating guidelines for younger patients.