Health Insurance Futures
Definition of "Health insurance futures"
One-year futures contract (standardized agreement between two parties to buy or sell a commodity or financial instrument on an organized futures exchange such as the CBOT within some future time period at a present stipulated price), traded at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), which would allow health insurance companies and self-insured employers to hedge their losses. The essential design of this contract is such that when actual claims exceed expected claims by amount "X," the futures contract would increase by the same amount "X." The financial instrument that forms the basis of this futures contract is an index that reflects the claims experience of ten health insurance companies. By buying futures contracts that will appreciate in the future as claims increase in the future, insurance companies and self-insured employers can profit from increasing futures prices through which they can offset their losses. Accordingly, by selling futures contracts that will decline in the future, these organizations can profit from decreasing futures prices that can be used to offset smaller cash flow. For example, if a health insurance company buys a futures contract for $40,000 and then sells it for $50,000, the company will recognize a profit of $10,000, which can be used to pay the higher than expected claims incurred. The cost effectiveness of hedging through the buying and selling of futures contracts depends on high correlations between expected claims payments and the futures contracts prices. If there is a low correlation between expected claims payments and the futures contracts prices, the less cost effective the hedge becomes. Thus, it is critical for the insurance company or the self-insured employer to establish the correlation between its block of business and the health insurance futures index.
Popular Insurance Terms
Early type of no-fault automobile insurance developed by two law professors, Robert Keeton and Jeffrey O'Connell. Its basic premise is that for many accidents it is impossible to place the ...
Provisions added to an original insurance policy that alter or modify benefits and coverages of the contract. For example, a homeowners insurance policy can be endorsed to cover a ...
Process of the continual reinsurance of a ceding company's portfolio of insurance policies. All premiums that have been ceded become earned premiums. ...
Policy used to provide the funds for buy and sell agreements under which an income payment or a series of income payments is paid to the buyer of the disabled partner's interest contained ...
Insurance coverage that protects a contractor or other type of business providing a service for expenses incurred in the event a contract is not ratified by a foreign government. For ...
Allocation of funds in a retirement plan. ...
Person who has been authorized by the insurance company to pay a loss (s) incurred by the insured. ...
Acts or omissions that result in suits against an individual and/or residents of the individual's household for actual or imagined bodily injury and/or property damage to a third party. ...
Frequency with which employees resign, are fired, or retire from a company, usually computed as the percentage, of an organization's employees at the beginning of a calendar year. The ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.