IAA Releases Paper on Long Term Care - An Actuarial

Perspective on Societal and Personal Challenges

The International Actuarial Association (IAA) is pleased to announce the publication of the paper Long-Term Care — An Actuarial Perspective on Societal and Personal Challenges developed by its Population Issues Working Group (PIWG).

As populations age over the next several decades, the demand for long-term care (LTC) services (assisting individuals with their activities of daily life) will increase dramatically and is likely to reach crisis levels in many countries. Societies should confront this emerging need, if they have not done so already, because historical methods for providing and financing LTC may not be adequate to address future LTC needs.

The primary objective of this paper is to provide information concerning some of the key issues associated with LTC, recognising that there are significant differences throughout the world in how LTC is delivered and financed.

The overall message of this paper is that it is very important for individuals, societies and policy makers to address LTC issues in a timely manner before they become more severe. It is hoped that this paper will encourage further discussion of LTC-related issues by national actuarial associations, individual actuaries and policy makers that can help lead to the development of effective solutions for the provision, delivery and financing of LTC.

Sam Gutterman, co-vice-chair of the PIWG, who led the development of the paper said “LTC is an important and complex issue that everyone should be concerned with, either at the societal, business or personal level. Due to their background in addressing long-term contingent events, actuaries have a role to play in enhancing the understanding of the issues involved and assisting the development of appropriate policy.”

This paper will be presented at the Seminar on the Current Developments in Aging and Mortality on 18 April 2017 in Budapest. The paper is available on the IAA website under PUBLICATIONS/PAPERS as well as at the PIWG website.

This activity supports the IAA’s mission to promote the role, reputation and recognition of the actuarial profession. Further, it contributes towards achieving the IAA’s strategic objective to facilitate the coordination, use and expansion of the scientific knowledge and skills of the actuarial profession, to help enhance the scope, availability, and quality of actuarial services offered by individual members of its member associations.