Actuaries and Health care

Actuaries are professionals with a strong math and financial background that typically are hired by businesses to calculate long term costs of various financial contracts. They do this by creating mathematical models of the future. Most actuaries are employed by insurance companies or pension funds as both these entities need to know how much money to set aside for a benefit they have promised someone in the future.

The health care industry is increasingly becoming aware of the need for actuaries. In particular, employers struggling with runaway costs for health benefits are in desperate need of someone to calculate what the real financial impact of their benefit plans is. Many of these employers had historically not given much thought to the costs of their benefit plans. Health care is the hottest field for actuaries currently and is expected to remain so as the financial implications of health care become even more important as the American population ages.