By Darrell Knapp
One of the things I loved about being a health actuary was that you couldn’t do your job in a silo. The decisions you made and the assumptions you created were affected by a myriad of factors, including the economic environment, political and legislative decisions, and external issues such as climate change and air quality. Other factors included broad health trends and developments in health care such as flu-season severity, new treatments or drug therapies and, of course, developments in technology. No matter your area of focus, it was likely what the government was doing with Medicaid and Medicare would affect you. All in all, it made for a very dynamic work environment. I am sure actuaries working in other disciplines faced similar challenges.
Keeping abreast of all these critically important emerging issues always seemed to me to be a Herculean challenge. I was thankful that in carrying out its mission to serve the public and the U.S. actuarial profession, the American Academy of Actuaries provided insight into many of these important emerging issues. These insights are valuable not only to members but to the public as well, offering balanced, well-thought-out analysis of the potential implications of responses to certain emerging issues or policy proposals.
The Academy’s objective, independent analysis should help policymakers to make better decisions when developing policies that impact our financial security systems. One way I stay abreast on a range of issues is through the Academy’s webinars—either by attending live sessions or listening to recorded webinars, which are free to Academy members. (Some webinars of broader interest are posted on YouTube and are available to the public.)
I have also been fortunate to grapple with the implications of a number of these issues by volunteering with Academy committees and task forces working to identify and address them. “Being in the room” as a volunteer provides a much greater level of insight and visibility into the topics at hand—just one of the many benefits to being an Academy volunteer.
The cover story in this issue of Contingencies discusses aging and financial security, one of the many emerging issues that the Academy is focused on. In addition, recent Academy webinars and publications have addressed issues such as the state of long-term care insurance, behavioral economics in insurance and retirement planning, and collective defined contribution retirement plans.
Looking ahead, the Academy will host its annual webinars on the Social Security Trustees Report, Medicare’s financial outlook, and final rules for Affordable Care Act exchanges. In addition, it will host an Insurance Investment Summit in May, a Future of Retirement Symposium in June, and the annual Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar in September (co-hosted with the Casualty Actuarial Society). Later in the year, the Academy will host the Life and Health Qualifications Seminar in November, and the Seminar on Effective P/C Loss Reserve Opinions in December. All these events provide valuable information on emerging issues, reinforcing the Academy’s role in providing essential resources for actuaries and their employers.
Throughout my career as a health actuary, I was thankful that the American Academy of Actuaries, along with other actuarial organizations, provided (and continue to provide) high-quality communications around a wide variety of emerging issues. These provided enormous value to both me and my employer to remain knowledgeable on issues to make informed decisions as an actuary. Staying on top of emerging issues sometimes is overwhelming, but it’s been made more manageable by the Academy and other actuarial stakeholder organizations through their ongoing analysis and insights.
Darrell Knapp is President of the Academy.