In 1977 the average American spent $755 per year on health care, most physicians functioned as independent practitioners, and only 5.6 million people under the age of 65 were enrolled in HMOs. Twenty years later, per capita expenditures had more than tripled, most physicians practiced within a managed care environment, and HMO enrollment stood at 62 million. Keeping pace with these and other changes in the U.S. health system has been the job of the National Medical Expenditure Surveys (NMES). Since they were first started in the 1970s, these federal government surveys have defined our basic understanding of how individuals and families use and pay for America's health care systems and have directly influenced national policy changes, health care reform, and cost-control strategies.

Informing American Health Care Policy is the definitive resource that analyzes the overall effect of the National Medical Expenditure Surveys. This important edited collection is written by an outstanding panel of experts from a variety of disciplines and includes contributions from nationally known economists, sociologists, and survey researchers. Rich in insights and lessons learned, Informing American Health Care Policy
Offers a critical assessment and a discerning overview of NMES' outcomes
Describes how the design strategies and methods evolved over the past two decades
Provides a detailed discussion about the collection of a wide range of data on health insurance and employment status
Addresses troublesome issues in defining and measuring access in vulnerable populations
Summarizes the multiple and complex issues of survey design, population sampling, and analytical method
Demonstrates the indispensability of NMES data in the health reform debates

The contributors examine how the current health care environment reflects the successes and failures of previous research and makes recommendations on how to adapt survey research to be more effective in the future.

The Important Lessons Learned from the National Medical Expenditure Surveys

Informing American Health Care Policy provides a critical perspective on the National Medical Expenditure Surveys (NMES) and how these surveys have responded to the sometimes conflicting challenges of policy and research. Sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and written by a stellar panel of interdisciplinary experts including contributions from nationally known economists, sociologists, and survey researchers, this essential resource is filled with lessons learned and emerging strategies for the future.

"I enjoyed reading this book. Thanks to the major investment in health expenditure and insurance surveys and the increasingly sophisticated analytic capacity described in this volume, policy officials now have a much more precise and up-to-date understanding of the implications of policy choices."--Karen Davis, president, The Commonwealth Fund; developed President Carter's 1977 national health reform proposal

"In this important book, the lead researchers associated with NMES describe the development of this rich data source and, in a series of well-crafted papers, illustrate the use of these data in informing major areas of health policy. It is a must read for anyone interested in American health policy-especially for younger professionals entering this growing field."--Uwe E.Reinhardt, James Madison Professor of Political Economy, Princeton University

"National health expenditure surveys have provided policymakers with the information they need to make informed decisions. This volume tells us about the evolution and contributions of the federal government's most ambitious health care survey. I recommend it for those interested in improving the quality of data available to those who formulate policy."--John K. Iglehart, founding editor, Health Affairs

"Thoughtful and informed reflections on the lessons learned by NMES. Provides sound guidance and procedures required to address the enduring policy questions of Who's covered? Who pays?, and How much? in the emerging U.S. health care environment of the future."--Lu Ann Aday, professor of behavioral sciences and management and policy sciences, the University of Texas School of Public Health; and author, Designing and Conducting Health Surveys, Fourth Edition

As health care concerns grow in the U.S., medical anthropologist Linda M. Whiteford and social psychologist Larry G. Branch present their findings on a health care anomaly, from an unlikely source. Primary Health Care in Cuba examines the highly successful model of primary health care in Cuba following the 1959 Cuban Revolution. This model, developed during a time of dramatic social and political change, created a preventive care system to better provide equity access to health care. Cuba's recognition as a paragon of health care has earned praise from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Pan American Health Organization. In this book, Whiteford and Branch explore the successes of Cuba's preventive primary health care system and its contribution to global health.

Workers' compensation causes headaches throughout all levels of an organization. Injuries affect production, costs, and morale. Managing Workers' Compensation: A Guide to Injury Reduction and Effective Claim Management lays out - in logical order - management and safety procedures that reduce injuries and the aggravation that follows. The authors cover hiring, training, and managing employees with injury avoidance in mind. They provide a blueprint for dealing with injured employees and their families, and for determining the correct time for the employee to return to work.

The book discusses the all-important issues of fraud, modified duty, substance abuse testing and accident investigations. It also provides guidance for managing your organization's safety efforts in a manner that targets workers' compensation cost control as one of its major objectives. In addition to comprehensive coverage of workers' compensation, the book gives you a thorough explanation of additional sources of assistance, including the availability and utility of Internet safety resources, a complete listing of state workers' compensation agencies, and sample checklists that help you evaluate your workplace.

Although workers' compensation laws vary from state-to-state, the principles behind the system and the ability of employers to influence their own premiums remain consistent. By gaining a thorough understanding of these principles and implementing proven cost control strategies, you can realize substantial savings. Managing Workers' Compensation: A Guide to Injury Reduction and Effective Claim Management explains the process by which premiums are calculated and shows how you can impact - favorably - the amount your organization pays in premiums.

Over the past two decades, the United States has successfully deregulated prices and restrictions on most previously-regulated industries, including airlines, trucking, railroads, telecommunications, and banking. Only a few industries remain regulated, the largest being the property-liability insurance business. In light of recent sweeping financial modernization legislation in other sectors of the insurance industry, this timely volume examines the basis for continued regulation of rates and forms of the U.S. property-liability insurance market. The book focuses on private passenger automobile insurance --the most important personal line of property-liability coverage, with annual premiums of about $120 billion. The authors analyze five state case studies: California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey --three of the most heavily regulated states --as well as Illinois, which has been deregulated for about 30 years, and South Carolina, which began to deregulate in 1997. The study also includes an econometric analysis based on all fifty states over a 25-year period that gauges the impact of regulation on insurance price levels, price volatility, and the proportion of automobiles insured in residual markets. The authors conclude that regulation does not significantly reduce long-run prices for consumers, and generally limits availability of coverage, reduces the quality and variety of services available in the market, inhibits productivity growth, and increases price volatility. Contributors include Dwight Jaffee (University of California, Berkeley), Thomas Russell (Santa Clara University ), Laureen Regan (Temple University), Sharon Tennyson (Cornell University), Mary Weiss (Temple University), John Worrall (Rutgers University), Stephen D'Arcy (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Martin Grace (Georgia State University), Robert Klein (Georgia State University), Richard Phillips (Georgia State University), Georges Dionne (University of Montreal), and Richard Butler (Brigham Young University).

Claims reserving is central to the insurance industry. Insurance liabilities depend on a number of different risk factors which need to be predicted accurately. This prediction of risk factors and outstanding loss liabilities is the core for pricing insurance products, determining the profitability of an insurance company and for considering the financial strength (solvency) of the company.

Following several high-profile company insolvencies, regulatory requirements have moved towards a risk-adjusted basis which has lead to the Solvency II developments. The key focus in the new regime is that financial companies need to analyze adverse developments in their portfolios. Reserving actuaries now have to not only estimate reserves for the outstanding loss liabilities but also to quantify possible shortfalls in these reserves that may lead to potential losses. Such an analysis requires stochastic modeling of loss liability cash flows and it can only be done within a stochastic framework. Therefore stochastic loss liability modeling and quantifying prediction uncertainties has become standard under the new legal framework for the financial industry.

This book covers all the mathematical theory and practical guidance needed in order to adhere to these stochastic techniques. Starting with the basic mathematical methods, working right through to the latest developments relevant for practical applications; readers will find out how to estimate total claims reserves while at the same time predicting errors and uncertainty are quantified. Accompanying datasets demonstrate all the techniques, which are easily implemented in a spreadsheet. A practical and essential guide, this book is a must-read in the light of the new solvency requirements for the whole insurance industry

Disability insurance, long-term care insurance, and critical illness cover are becoming increasingly important in developed countries as the problems of demographic aging come to the fore. The private sector insurance industry is providing solutions to problems resulting from these pressures and other demands of better educated and more prosperous populations. Actuarial Models for Disability Insurance examines the actuarial structure of disability insurance, long-term care insurance, and critical illness cover, including problems encountered in the design and development of such insurances. Actuarial problems such as pricing and reserving are considered within the context of multiple state modeling, providing a vigorous and sound framework for analyzing personal insurances.

This volume is an exploration of the ethical issues raised by health insurance, which is particularly timely in the light of recent advances in medical research and political economy. Focusing on a wide range of areas, such as AIDS, genetic engineering, screening and underwriting, new disability legislation and the ethics of private and public health insurance, this comprehensive and sometimes controversial book provides an essential survey of the key issues in health insurance. Divided into two parts, the first considers the ethics of underwriting, risk assessment and the acceptance and refusal of insurance risk by insurers. Discussing the unjust treatment of high-risk applicants, the authors identify sources of unfairness to both parties of the insurance contract, indicating how reasonable trade-offs can be made. The second part considers the argument for a mix of public and private insurance for acute and long-term care, offering recommendations for changes in the balance of social insurance, and discussing the shift toward long-term contracts in private health care and pension insurance.

This volume is an exploration of the ethical issues raised by health insurance, which is particularly timely in the light of recent advances in medical research and political economy. Focusing on a wide range of areas, such as AIDS, genetic engineering, screening and underwriting, new disability legislation and the ethics of private and public health insurance, this comprehensive and sometimes controversial book provides an essential survey of the key issues in health insurance. Divided into two parts, the first considers the ethics of underwriting, risk assessment and the acceptance and refusal of insurance risk by insurers. Discussing the unjust treatment of high-risk applicants, the authors identify sources of unfairness to both parties of the insurance contract, indicating how reasonable trade-offs can be made. The second part considers the argument for a mix of public and private insurance for acute and long-term care, offering recommendations for changes in the balance of social insurance, and discussing the shift toward long-term contracts in private health care and pension insurance.

Complete profiles of today's most successful annuities... Expert tips on how to maximize your returns...

Variable annuities now outpace mutual funds as the number one choice among street-smart investors—and it's easy to see why. Tax-deferred, commission-free, easy to purchase and redeem, carrying less risk than most other instruments, and exhibiting a superb overall performance, they are an indispensable addition to any low-risk, high-yield portfolio. Now, in the first book of its kind, financial planning expert Gordon Williamson demystifies annuities investing. Writing in a straightforward, down-to-earth style, he:

• Clearly explains how annuities work, profiles their return potential, and frankly assesses their relative advantages and disadvantages
• Steers you to the 100 best annuities for your investment dollar
• Emphasizes risk reduction without sacrificing returns
• Supplies complete annuity profiles, including average annual returns over the past 3, 5, and 10 years
• Ranks and evaluates today's entire spectrum of annuity products—aggressive growth/small cap, international, growth and income, balanced, money market, and more
• Pinpoints the best performing variable annuities
• Includes investment options within each annuity recommended

The word is out: variable annuities are one of the best investment instruments developed in this century. Now find out how you can take full advantage of their unprecedented earning potential with The 100 Best Annuities You Can Buy.

Concentrating on practical examples, this text is presented in the style of a workbook for anyone involved in reinsurance operations. It includes 33 slip examples complete with underwriting information and comment. Chapters include coverage of reinsurance line limits and retentions, expenses, accumulation and reinsurance protection, systems and controls, rescuing and underwriting examples.

Originally published in 1979, The Investment Behaviour of British Life Insurance Companies provides a critical analysis of the investment policy of the life insurance industry for the period of 1962-76, and attempts to construct an econometric model of the investment behaviour. It looks at the portfolio composition of life funds and their position in the markets for securities in terms of their gross purchases and sales and net acquisitions. It also considers the principles on which life offices appear to operate the principles on which life offices appear to operate in respect of investing their 'reserves' to meet future contingent liabilities. This book will appeal to those working in the field of economic and business.

Practical Risk Theory is designed to be a textbook for practising actuaries and student actuaries on the practical aspects of stochastic modelling of the insurance business. It has its roots in the classical theory of risk but introduces many new elements that are important in managing the insurance business but which are usually ignored in the classical theory. These include modelling the stochastic behaviour of inflation and investments, cyclical effects on both claims and premiums, claaim run-off uncertainty and feed-back mechanisms. The main focus of the book is on general insurance (property/casualty insurance) but there are also chapters in life insurance and pensions. Practical tips are given for the use of simulation to solve both short-term and long-term problems, with many practical applications. The text avoids the use of complex or abstruse mathematical formulations and makes liberal use of diagrams and graphical representations.

American state and Canadian provincial governments have dealt with rapidly rising auto insurance rates in different ways over the last two decades, a difference many attribute to variances in political pressure exerted by interest groups such as trial attorneys and insurance companies. Edward L. Lascher, Jr., argues that we must consider two additional factors: the importance of politicians' beliefs about the potential success of various solutions and the role of governmental institutions.

Using case studies from both sides of the border, Lascher shows how different explanations of the problem and different political structures affect insurance reform. In his conclusion, Lascher moves beyond auto insurance to draw implications for regulation and policymaking in other areas.

Title insurance is central to the health of the home mortgage market and the commerical real estate business, and its regulation has a profound impact on the prices that consumers pay for title insurance and the kinds of coverages that are available. Dr. Lipshutz provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the key economic policy issues that arise in regulating this small but critical segment of the insurance industry. This is the first book to examine title insurance from a primarily economic viewpoint and contains much information on the operations of the industry that is available nowhere else. The book is particularly timely because title insurance regulation is currently under intensive study by a number of state insurance departments and by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

By the eve of the Great Depression, there existed in America the equivalent of a policy for every man, woman and child, and in Britain it grew from its narrow aristocratic base to cover all social classes. This primary resource collection is the first comparative history of British and American life insurance industries.

By the eve of the Great Depression, there existed in America the equivalent of a policy for every man, woman and child, and in Britain it grew from its narrow aristocratic base to cover all social classes. This primary resource collection is the first comparative history of British and American life insurance industries.

This book, adopting machine learning techniques for the financial planning field, explores the demand for life insurance as seen in previous literature and both estimates and predicts the demand for the adoption of life insurance using these techniques. Previous studies used diverse perspectives, like actuarial and life span, in order to understand the demand for life insurance, though these approaches have shown inconsistent findings. Employing two theoretical backgrounds-ecological systemic theory and artificial intellectual methodology-this book explores a better estimation and a prediction of the demand for life insurance and will be of interest to academics and students of insurance, financial planning, and risk management.

Few people realize that one of the nation's largest health programs runs through the tax system. Reformers of all stripes propose to modify current tax rules as part of larger programs to increase coverage and control costs. Is the current system working? Will tax-based reforms achieve their goals? Several of the nation's foremost experts on taxation and health policy address these questions in Using Taxes to Reform Health Insurance, a joint product of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the American Tax Policy Institute. Led by respected economists Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution and Leonard Burman of the Urban Institute, contributors examine the role taxes currently play, the likely effects of recently introduced health savings accounts, the challenges of administering major subsidies for health insurance through the tax system, and options for using the tax system to expand health insurance coverage. No taxpayer or consumer of health care services can afford to ignore these issues.

Actuaries are experts in assessing risk, so it is not surprising that over the past few years they have become involved in many new areas of financial planning, including the appraisal of major capital projects. In this collection of essays published to celebrate the Institute of Actuariesa 150th Anniversary, leading experts describe how actuarial concepts have contributed to many important social and financial developments, and how these ideas will continue to "make financial sense of the future." Even non--mathematicians will find this book useful in understanding how the scientific bases of the insurance and pensions industries grew up, and how they work today. The authors each write from the perspective of their own special expertise. They include five former presidents of the Institute of Faculty of Actuaries.

The life insurance industry was one of the most important financial institutions of the long 19th century, on both sides of the Atlantic. By the eve of the Great Depression, there existed in America the equivalent of a policy for every man, woman and child alive at the time, whilst in Britain the life insurance market grew steadily from its narrow aristocratic base to encompass all social classes at home and throughout the empire. The sources in this edition are collected in three themed volumes.

Risk Analysis in Finance and Insurance, Second Edition presents an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the main concepts and methods that transform risk management into a quantitative science. Taking into account the interdisciplinary nature of risk analysis, the author discusses many important ideas from mathematics, finance, and actuarial science in a simplified manner. He explores the interconnections among these disciplines and encourages readers toward further study of the subject. This edition continues to study risks associated with financial and insurance contracts, using an approach that estimates the value of future payments based on current financial, insurance, and other information. New to the Second Edition Expanded section on the foundations of probability and stochastic analysis Coverage of new topics, including financial markets with stochastic volatility, risk measures, risk-adjusted performance measures, and equity-linked insurance More worked examples and problems Reorganized and expanded, this updated book illustrates how to use quantitative methods of stochastic analysis in modern financial mathematics. These methods can be naturally extended and applied in actuarial science, thus leading to unified methods of risk analysis and management.

Discover what demographics can tell us about the economy, markets, and the future In Demographics Unravelled, renowned Macro-Demographics expert Amlan Roy delivers an insightful and timely exploration of the impact that "people characteristics" have on national economies. Considering factors like gender, race, migrant status, family background, and education, the author delves deeply into a subject that drives market behavior and economic variables, including growth, debt, inflation, employment, and productivity. These have national and international policy implications. In this one-of-a-kind book, you'll discover: Why the study of demographics is the hidden key to understanding economic growth, asset prices, and capital flows How to use detailed demographics to forecast future scenarios in economics, socioeconomics, geopolitics, and the environment The short-, medium-, and long-term effects of consumer and worker behavior How understanding demographics is key to understanding health, pensions, migration, sustainability and social policies. It is intimately linked to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN--Gender, Climate, Poverty and Inequality Perfect for institutional investors, insurance professionals, economists, and business leaders, Demographics Unravelled will also earn a place in the libraries of academics and students studying a variety of economic disciplines and seeking a one-stop and in-depth discussion of demographics-driven macroeconomic effects.

The business guide to Big Data in insurance, with practical application insight Big Data and Analytics for Insurers is the industry-specific guide to creating operational effectiveness, managing risk, improving financials, and retaining customers. Written from a non-IT perspective, this book focusses less on the architecture and technical details, instead providing practical guidance on translating analytics into target delivery. The discussion examines implementation, interpretation, and application to show you what Big Data can do for your business, with insights and examples targeted specifically to the insurance industry. From fraud analytics in claims management, to customer analytics, to risk analytics in Solvency 2, comprehensive coverage presented in accessible language makes this guide an invaluable resource for any insurance professional. The insurance industry is heavily dependent on data, and the advent of Big Data and analytics represents a major advance with tremendous potential yet clear, practical advice on the business side of analytics is lacking. This book fills the void with concrete information on using Big Data in the context of day-to-day insurance operations and strategy. * Understand what Big Data is and what it can do * Delve into Big Data's specific impact on the insurance industry * Learn how advanced analytics can revolutionise the industry * Bring Big Data out of IT and into strategy, management, marketing, and more Big Data and analytics is changing business but how? The majority of Big Data guides discuss data collection, database administration, advanced analytics, and the power of Big Data but what do you actually do with it? Big Data and Analytics for Insurers answers your questions in real, everyday business terms, tailored specifically to the insurance industry's unique needs, challenges, and targets.

Reflecting the author's wealth of experience in this field, Handbook of Solvency for Actuaries and Risk Managers: Theory and Practice focuses on the valuation of assets and liabilities, the calculation of capital requirement, and the calculation of the standard formula for the European Solvency II project. The first three sections of the book examine the solvency concept, historical development, and the role of solvency in an enterprise risk management approach. The text provides a general discussion on valuation, investment, and capital, along with modeling and measuring. It also covers dependence, risk measures, capital requirements, subrisks, aggregation, the main risks market, and credit, operational, liquidity, and underwriting risks. The last three sections focus on the European Solvency II project. Basing the material on CEIOPS final advice, the author presents the general ideas, valuation, investments, and funds of this project as well as the standard formula framework. He also includes all calibrations from previous quantitative impact studies and discusses the political progress of the project. A one-stop shop for actuaries and risk managers, this handbook offers a complete overview of solvency and the European Solvency II standard formula. It gives a clear definition and broad historical review of solvency and incorporates a comprehensive discussion of the theory behind the calculation of the capital requirement. Updates on solvency projects and issues are available at www.SolvencyII.nu

The book encompasses the broad field of e-Finance and its transformation. After reviewing the developments in the economic and the technology fields, it examines how the insurance, banking, and securities trading firms are bringing about the digital revolution and adapting in the same breath to the changed socio-economic environment. Add to it, the "Rogue Elements", the field of cyber crimes is covered on a priority basis. The book also covers the inevitable changes in fields of HR and Marketing and the crucial role of the regulators. Looked at through the eyes of Corporate Planner, the book does provide a road map for the financial institutions (FIs).