Health Practice Council highlights

The Health Practice Council:

• Developed a series of policy statements, providing the actuarial perspective on various potential components of federal health care reform proposals. The series, Critical Issues in Health Reform, addresses the following issues: actuarial equivalence, administrative expenses, gender considerations in a voluntary individual health insurance market, health insurance cooperatives, an individual mandate, market reform principles, merging the small group and individual markets, minimum loss ratios, a public plan option, risk pooling, and transitioning into new markets. These statements, as well as additional testimony and comment letters related to major health care reform bills, prompted the council to launch a new health care reform webpage, Health Reform Now, on the Academy’s website.
• Collaborated with the Society of Actuaries on two modeling projects. The first project was a comment letter developed in July by a joint work group of the Academy’s Federal Long-Term Care Task Force and the Society’s Long-Term Care Insurance Section Council regarding the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, a proposed, voluntary long-term care services program included in the Senate health reform bill. The second project resulted in a webcast that presented a technical report on the necessary start-up capital requirements for health insurance cooperatives and a public plan option.
• Hosted briefings for congressional staff on risk-pooling and adverse selection, risk adjustment, and the keys for viable health care reform. The council was also in constant communication with congressional staff to explain issues ranging from actuarial equivalence and the effects of adverse selection to the impact of health reform on premiums, reinsurance, and risk-sharing mechanisms.
• Contributed a series of articles to Contingencies covering international health care reform. The first article on the Israeli system appeared in the May/June edition. The second article covers changes in the Dutch health care system and appears in the November/December edition.
  
• Submitted a number of reports to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, many in response to NAIC requests, including a report on the proposed changes to the Medicare Refund Supplement Refund Formula and recommendations regarding changes to risk-based capital risk factors for Medicare Part D coverage.
  
• Composed a new practice note on the changes to the actuarial statement of opinion instructions. The practice note outlines revisions to the health actuarial opinion requirements adopted by the NAIC in 2009 and recommends guidance for actuaries to both understand and comply with the new requirements.
  

Health Practice Council resources

See recent Academy publications, analyses, and comments on public policy health issues.

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