Concerned Actuaries Group Publishes New Analyses on Health Care System’s Sustainability

Last month, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Concerned Actuaries Group launched the American Health Care Initiative, a collaborative effort dedicated to inform the public, policymakers, and key stakeholders regarding the fiscal and managerial challenges confronting our health care system. Through this initiative, the two organizations are each publishing and promoting a series of papers, briefings, presentations, and other materials to energize a much-needed conversation about improving the sustainability and accessibility of our health care system.

In addition to the three products the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has put out as part of the Initiative, our partner, the Concerned Actuaries Group, has produced three articles and video briefings for the Initiative.

The first product, Big Numbers, discusses how large total health expenditures are per person, as a share of the economy, and in the context of household consumer expenditures and the federal budget. In all of these cases, health care looms large. It also shows how these numbers could all increase over time if costs are not brought under control. Big Numbers includes both an article and a video briefing.

The second product, Big Benefits, discusses the different public health care programs – Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – and the subsidies for individual and employer-based health insurance. It details how the nature of services provided in each category influences spending. It also discusses how public programs do not meet risk management or sustainability criteria. This product also includes an article and a video briefing.

The third product, Who Pays, discusses the fragmented nature of the health care system across payers and revenue sources as well as the general unsustainability of the system. It looks at utilization and cost trends over time and the imbalance of the distribution of spending on health care and taxes or premiums to fund that spending by category. It also looks at the income distribution of enrollees in each type of insurance. Who Pays includes both an article and a video briefing.

You can find all of the Concerned Actuaries Group's products on the American Health Care Initiative page on our website or at CAG's site.