Posts Tagged → Actuaries
Is Medicare Safe? Just Ask the Actuaries
Article by Richard Kuehn
Is Medicare Safe? Just Ask the Actuaries
The Monterey Herald ran a story 8/6 covering an annual report by the trustees who oversee Medicare and Social Security which shows that health care reforms could stave off a looming disaster in government funded benefits for a dozen more years. That is, if the report’s economic assumptions hold true, although this may be wishful thinking. The report projects the Medicare Hospital Trust Fund won’t be exhausted until 2029, 12 years longer than the estimate put out last year. However, some analysts are skeptical of the findings and even Kathleen Sebelius, one of the trustees as well as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, admitted that they were required by law to assume current laws stay in effect in making their projections. This includes cutting Medicare payments to Doctors, which she doubts will ever happen. “Which is why we continue to provide cautionary notes,” in the report, Sebelius told a reporter.
The report projects that Social Security, which will pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes for the first time in decades in both 2010 and 2011, will be out of money in 2037, the same year as forecasted in last year’s report. It predicts there will be no cost of living adjustment for Social Security recipients next year, the second year in a row. Government actuaries have said that Medicare costs will consume 8% of the economy in the U.S. (compared with 3.6% now) by 2050, while the trustees assume it will only be 6%, a difference of hundreds of billions of dollars. The latter assume that Doctors will absorb a 30% cut in Medicare payments over the next three years. This seems unlikely. Any senior knows that it’s currently very difficult to find Doctors willing to accept Medicare patients because the payout is so low. If the government tries to implement these types of draconian cuts, it will only cause more Doctors to refuse to serve Medicare patients. This, in turn, will cause more stress on Doctors that do take Medicare patients, and will likely result in more emergency room visits as seniors won’t be able to get into the packed Doctors offices that do accept Medicare as payment.
Hospitals will take a huge hit, as they are big recipients of Medicare funds. Both Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula have already had to cut back staff significantly to cope with the bleak economic environment. More cuts in Medicare payments will just result in more job losses for residents here, which already has a high unemployment rate. As I have written many times on my blog, seniors are living longer and many have not planned ahead financially for the very expensive twilight years, which include increasing costs for prescriptions, medical care, physical therapy and in-home caregiving services. I urge you to get Long Term Care (LTC) insurance if you can afford it. It’s expensive, but it can help you stay in your home and comfortable in your senior years, something the government is unlikely to be able to afford to help you with.
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_15693396?IADID=Search-http://www.montereyherald.com-www.montereyherald.com&nclick_check=1http://familyinhomecaregiving.com/americans-living-longer-theyll-be-working-longer-too/http://familyinhomecaregiving.com/blog/
After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member Richard Kuehn was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. He became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to the elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula.
Career Profiles and Job Opportunities Of Actuaries
Article by Bimol
The jobs of the actuaries in general involves preventing or minimizing financial risks of the definite company with the help of business knowledge, as well as the knowledge of finances and statistics. The greater number of the actuaries are employed in the insurance industry. The professionals in this field specialize mostly in the property and casualty insurance as well as life and health insurances. Actuaries can be also found in many other industrial as well as government financial services.
Job Features Of Actuaries
The job profiles of the specialists called actuaries include the following features:* Actuaries are generally trained in such subjects as advanced mathematics and certainly business.* The major job responsibility of the actuaries consists in determining the price of such events as injury, disability, death, or the property losses. * Some other major concerns of actuaries include investments and pension plans which are mostly responsibilities of more specialized financial workers. * Actuaries should be extremely strong in mathematics and computer skills.* As a rule, the actuary works about forty hours a week. And consulting actuaries may have constantly changing and unpredicted schedules.
Education and Training Of The Future Actuaries
Education and training Of The Future Actuaries should include the following features:- Bachelor’s degree in mathematics or statistics; – Actuaries can have a specialized science degree; – Major course works of actuaries should include actuarial models, applied statistics calculus, life contingencies, and economics;- The professional certifications include applied statistics, economics, and finances.
One of the important traits of the professional career of actuaries consists in the fact that a great number of them start working in the field immediately after the graduation. They start working full time even during their passing of certification examinations. In order to get career advancements actuaries should work hard on perfect demonstrating their job performances and successful passing their examinations. Gaining more and more experience the candidates become able to take management and supervisory positions.
Online University
Nowadays, in the world of scientific technological progress, when each person has access to the internet and World Wide Web, one can cover any kind of the courses. The greater number of them are available online. The same concerns the training course for actuaries. Any willing person can find a great variety of institutions for the future actuary. They include University of Phoenix; national and international DeVry University; as well as AIU. Thus, any prospective candidate can obtain a degree studying online.
Employment and Earning Prospects Of Actuaries
About 60% of the actuaries are working in the insurance industries. As the contemporary world experiences the quick and stable growth of the industry, the job prospects for actuaries also grow in the same manner. More than 4,300 new employments are expected to come up by the year of 2016 – it’s 24% increase since 2011. As for the states of the USA offering the best employment opportunities for actuaries, it’s important to name Kansas, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
According to BLS research the average profit of actuaries with higher qualifications during 2007 was $ 95,420 and those having bachelor’s degree earned $ 53,475.