Academy Health Care Analysis Featured in New York Times Story
The New York Times on Wednesday quoted Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello and the Academy’s June 30 letter to Senate leaders in a story on an amendment proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to the Senate health bill that would allow insurers to offer less-comprehensive coverage than mandated under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as long as they offer access to at least one ACA-compliant plan.
“People who are healthy now would tend to choose noncompliant plans with really basic benefits,” Uccello told the Times, but added that “people who want or need more comprehensive coverage could find it out of their reach, because it might become unaffordable.”
The Academy letter, sent last Friday from the Individual and Small Group Markets Committee and the Medicaid Subcommittee, noted that individual market consumers could face “much higher deductibles” under less generous health insurance plans, the Times reported.
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Due to the high level of interest expressed in last week’s Academy webinar on the Credit for Life Reinsurance in U.S. Statutory Financial Statementspractice note exposure draft, the comment deadline has been extended through July 31 to allow adequate time for review and comment from all interested parties.
The Nonforfeiture Modernization Work Group sent to the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force its final report on issues and considerations around updating the existing nonforfeiture laws for life insurance and annuity products.
Alerts
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Insurance Office released a report, Study of Small Insurer Competitiveness in the Terrorism Risk Insurance Marketplace, which is based on an analysis of information from the annual data call pursuant to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
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Recently Released
In the July/August issue of Contingencies, the cover story “A Rigged Game?” takes a probing—and timely—look at human nature and the U.S. health care system. Other features include an analysis of technological unemployment and universal basic income, an exploration of the paradigm shift in the way insurance companies are crafting their offerings to consumers, and an examination of why analytic competition in a world of Big Data is a problem and what we can do about it. And in Part 3 of the “Professionalism in Action” series, Academy President Bob Beuerlein explores professionalism and new and emerging practice areas.
The summer issue of StateScan Quarterly features state legislative and regulatory activity relating to transportation network companies, captives, public pension plans, and marketplace changes in health care coverage. StateScan, the legislative/regulatory portal for Academy members, provides state legislative and regulatory reports on key topics in all actuarial practice areas.
In the News
New York magazine cited the Academy’s analysis that 2017 health premium increases in a number of states are not necessarily indicative of an ACA premium spiral.
A 21st Century Tech blog post described how the Academy’s jointly sponsored Actuaries Climate Index can help provide valuable data regarding climate change to the actuarial profession, insurers, and the public.
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