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
Replacement for the earlier Family Automobile Policy (FAP) with these nine basic coverages: Coverage A Liability, The company pays damages for which an insured becomes legally obligated ...
Same as term Dividend Addition: option in a participating policy under which dividends are used to purchase fully paid-up units of whole life insurance. This option deserves careful ...
Ratio of authorized control level risk-based capital of an insurance company to its total adjusted capital. This statistic determines regulatory action taken by the state's insurance ...
Modified endowment insurance policy under which the insured receives one-half the death benefit as the maturity value of the policy. ...
Specified requirements of minimum age and years of service to be met by an employee before the individual's benefits are vested. For example, under the ten year vesting rule, "n employee ...
Exchange of a new policy for one already in force. ...
Court-appointed or commissioner of insurance-appointed custodian to manage the affairs of an insurance company whose management is deemed unable to manage that company in a proper fashion. ...
Form of marine insurance that covers mobile equipment of a contractor, including road building machinery, steam shovels, hoists, and derricks used on the job by builders of structures, ...
Same as term Basic Limit of Liability: required minimum amounts of coverage that an insurance company will underwrite. For example, for auto liability coverage the minimum that many ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.