Oct 13, 2009

Humor: Actuary Solves Credit Crisis

One upon a time there was a small village depending on only one source of income, tourism... the only problem was - due to the 'crisis' - there were no tourists left...

Every villager had to borrow from an other in order to survive.. several months passed .. everyone felt miserable.

One day a cost conscious actuary, visiting a Risk Conference nearby, arrived in the village.

Heading for a cheap overnight stay, he booked a small room in the only available local hotel. He paid in advance with a 100 dollar note and went to his room to prepare for the conference.

Before the actuary could unpack his bags, the hotel owner had already taken the 100 dollar note, heading his way to pay the butcher.. to whom he owed precisely 100 dollar.

The butcher, in his turn, immediately ran off with the 100 dollar to see the local farmer and paid his debt for all the meat he'd been supplied with...

With the same 100 dollar note, the farmer immediately paid the seed salesman who, right at that time, was visiting the farmer to collect the unpaid 100 dollar bill.

Back in his hotel, the seed salesman closed the circle. In order to settle the hotel bill for that night, he dropped the 100 dollar note on the counter. Just at that moment, the actuary - who'd come down to tell the hotel owner that he didn't like his room - arrives at the counter, picks up his 100 dollar and disappears.

Nothing was spent,
nothing was gained,
nothing was lost.
Nonetheless, thanks to the actuary, nobody in the village had any debts!

Moral
This story shows why it's important for actuaries to attend Risk Conferences and illustrates how actuaries can actively contribute to solving the credit crisis.

Original Sources: Free after newciv, Dutch source Aardbron

Oct 12, 2009

Health Leadership 2009

The Netherlands win the 2009 Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), for the second year in a row.

Nevertheless, Denmark keeps its runner-up position from last year. Besides The Netherlands and Denmark there are other strong performers like Iceland, Austria and Switzerland, leaving the UK in a disappointing 14th position....

Index performance criteria
The EHCI 2009 groups 38 indicators of quality into six categories: Patient rights and information, e-Health, Waiting time for treatment, Outcomes, Range and reach of services provided and Pharmaceuticals.
Each sub-discipline is weighted for importance to provide the overall Index score.

HCP research director, Dr. Arne Bjornberg, states: The Dutch might have found a successful approach that combines competition for funding and provision within a regulated framework.

Effective Health (Actuarial) Principles
In actuarial context, the success of the Dutch health system is based on a few very simple principles:
  • Risk Solidarity
  • Risk Equalization
  • No Risk Selection
  • Free choice of Care Providers & Health Insurer
  • Transparent ranking of Care Providers on bases of cost & quality
  • Worldwide cover

The Dutch Health Care System
An excellent summary of the Dutch Health Care System can be viewed on YouTube:

Health care In the Netherlands


Of course the Dutch system is no panacea, there are also many challenges and disadvantages.

Just to mention some....



Nevertheless, the Dutch system can be an inspiring example for countries like the US and the UK.


Let's conclude with an interesting development. In an 2009 article called A Strategy for Health Care Reform, Michael E. Porter presents the principles for a new health system, based on the idea that the central focus must be on increasing value for patients.

Related downloads/sources:

Sep 28, 2009

Early Retirement hits Mortality

Do early pensioners live longer?

Or, to rephrase this: What's the influence of early retirement on mortality?

The answer has been given in a 2005 BMJ paper called:


In a long term (1973-2004) cohort research, the mortality of past Shell Oil employees,who retired at ages 55, 60, and 65, have been studied.

Outcome
The main outcome of this study is that subjects who retired early at 55 and who were still alive at 65 had a significantly higher mortality than those who retired at 65 (hazard ratio 1.37, 95% confidence interval 1.09 to 1.73).

After adjustment, mortality was similar between those who retired at 60 and those who retired at 65 (1.06, 0.92 to 1.22).

So we may (carefully) conclude that working longer, means living longer...

Another interesting question, that hasn't been answered yet, is:
'what's the influence of early retirement on our healthy life years...