Description: This article provides an overview of behavioral economic theory as it relates to health and welfare insurance plans and provides summaries of two sample applications of the theories: enrollment in health insurance exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and product design considerations in light of vast health illiteracy.

Description: This article is intended to provide an introduction to microfinance and microinsurance. Microfinance began in the 1960's and 1970's as a humanitarian activity directed at the poor to provide micro loans for working capital. Microinsurance MI protects people in the low-income range against specific perils in exchange for regular premium payments.

Description: To inform and educate stakeholders for health plans and insurers on novel ways to optimize reinsurance structures to meet capital related goals and boost RBC and liquidity ratios. In lieu of traditional market-based financial instruments involving equity and/or debt, a quota share transaction can be used with potentially far more attractive terms and achieving essentially the same result.

Description: Evidence is building from the physical sciences that we are starting to reach some of earth’s limits. Unless we can find some technological solutions, once these limits are reached, we can expect to see a very changed world. Instead of having constantly increasing resources available to us, we can expect ever-decreasing resources to be available. Instead of seeing year after year of growth, increasing longevity and improving morbidity, we can expect the opposite.

Description: To explore the main drivers of the growing force of Chinese Life Insurance Industry.

Description: This article talks about partnering with other risk professionals and the importance of research into the nature of risk and the responses to risk events.

Description: The Joint Risk Management Section conducted its fourth survey of emerging risks in fall 2010 in light of the BP oil spill which brought the impact of various risk combinations to the fore.

Description: Projecting Budget Surpluses by Carl E. Walsh from Risks and Rewards Newsletter, April 2000, Issue No. 34. Discussion of the difficulties involved in making projections U.S. budget surpluses or deficits and how assumptions change.

Description: MACRA not only impact providers, it will impact the entire healthcare market. MACRA published studies and commentary to date have primarily focused on providers, with the majority of the information addressing the impacts to clinicians. However, our investigation indicates MACRA has far reaching impacts to payers as well as providers. MACRA is impacting each geographic market and line of business in a unique way, and health payers will have multiple strategic decisions to consider given the changing market dynamics.

Description: Financial illiteracy has been identified as a major obstacle to effective retirement planning for Americans. Anna Rappaport’s article provides actuaries with helpful ideas about ways to make the public more aware of the increasing need for financial literacy and some of the resources currently available to help individuals.