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
Method of underwriting by which one or a group of Lloyd's underwriters write business on behalf of a number of Lloyd's syndicates and other insurance companies. Among the benefits of ...
Coverage of two or more persons with the death benefit payable at the first death. Premiums are significantly higher than for policies that insure one person, since the probability of ...
Organization based in Washington, D.C., that is composed of risk and insurance managers of various public entities, to include municipalities and school boards. ...
Insurance arrangement in which all employees of a given business firm are accepted into a plan regardless of their physical condition. The employee cannot be required to take a physical ...
Use of engineering approved fire resistive construction materials exclusively within a structure. ...
Same as term Mortality Table: chart showing rate of death at each age in terms of number of deaths per thousand. ...
Coverage provided by the pension benefit guaranty corporation (pbgc) that guarantees participants a certain level of pension benefits even if the plan terminates without assets. The PBGC ...
Group arrangement in which a network of attorneys provides legal services to the participants in the plan with the attorney fees being reimbursed by the provider. The attorneys who are ...
Legal status giving an insurance company all rights to an insured's property. The abandonment clause is usually found in marine insurance and not in other property insurance policies such ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.