scholarly journals CURE OR CURSE? REGULATIONS ON THE DEMARCATION BETWEEN HEALTH-INSURANCE POLICIES AND MEDICAL SCHEMES

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daleen Millard

In South Africa, private insurance policies are regulated by the Long-term Insurance Act and the Short-term Insurance Act. Medical schemes fall under the Medical Schemes Act (131 of 1998) and yet, despite the fact that there are three dedicated statutes that deal with the risks relating to ill health, it seems that the distinction between insurance products and medical-scheme benefits isnot so clear. On 2 March 2012 National Treasury published the proposed amendment of regulations made under section 72 of the LTIA and under section 70 of the STIA. These are jointly referred to as the “Demarcation Regulations”. This note provides an overview of these proposals against the background of the difference between insurance business and medical-schemes business. In addition, itinvestigates the policy principles that informed the Demarcation Regulations and comments on the impact of those on the insurance industry and on medical schemes.

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Liezel Essel ◽  
Frederik J. Mostert ◽  
Jan Hendrik Mostert

The short-term insurance industry is a cyclical type of business due to the impact of the continuous market cycle. This cycle has a growth phase, soft market phase, hard market phase and a break-even phase. The objective of the research paper focuses on the improvement of financial decision-making when executives of the short-term insurance industry are managing their business during the various phases of the continuous market cycle. Both a literature study and an empirical survey were necessary to achieve the research objective. The empirical survey included the contributions of the top nine commercial and corporate short-term insurers in South Africa. They represented more than 77% of the total gross written premiums in 2009 and can thus be considered as the leaders of the short-term insurance industry in this country. The conclusions of the study should be valuable to other developing countries with emerging market economies as South Africa is also classified as such. The study focused on the various factors which may cause the continuous market cycle, the problem areas which the executives experience concerning the continuous market cycle, and how often various factors are adjusted by the short-term insurers to account for changes in the continuous market cycle.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 851-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.J. Nowell ◽  
J.R. Crispin ◽  
M. Iqbal ◽  
S.F. Margutti ◽  
A. Muldoon

ABSTRACTA working party was set up in February 1999 by the Research Committee of the Life Board to consider the impact of a low inflationary environment on the financial services and investment markets with particular emphasis on companies conducting long-term insurance business.The working party has produced an interim report which reviews the causes of the present expectation of low inflation and discusses evidence from the past and the role of demographics. It considers issues surrounding the composition of the retail price index, appropriate economic assumptions and the impact on investment markets, including the effect of charges on net returns to savers. The position of long-term insurance business is then considered in more detail, looking at HM Treasury return consequences as well as disclosure and product design features. Finally, there are two investigations, the first looking at the effect of low inflation on the achieved profits derived from different product designs, and the second looking at the changes in ruin probability for a with-profits office associated with declining inflation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Supplement_6) ◽  
pp. vi90-vi90
Author(s):  
Ping Zhu ◽  
Xianglin Du ◽  
Nitin Tandon ◽  
Yoshua Esquenazi ◽  
Jay-Jiguang Zhu

Abstract OBJECTIVES To explore the impact of immunotherapy on short-term outcomes and long-term survival rates, and the predictors of immunotherapy receipt in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) using NCDB. METHODS A total of 74245 GBM patients were derived from the NCDB from 2004 to 2014. Analyses include short-term outcomes (at least 6-month, 1-year, or 2-year after diagnosis) and long-term survivorship (at least 3-year). The Kaplan-Meier method and accelerated failure time (AFT) models were performed for survival analysis. The multivariable binary logistic regressions were applied to identify predictors of immunotherapy receipt. Random survival forest was conducted to validate the variable importance and decision tree as well. RESULTS A total of 766 (1.0%) GBM patients received immunotherapy as the first-line treatment. The multivariable binary logistic regressions identified the significant predictors related to immunotherapy receipt, including the recent years of diagnosis (especially 2013 and 2014), age < 65 years, higher income, private insurance, residence-hospital distance >50 miles, care transition, treatment at the facility located in South regions or academic facilities, and adjuvant therapy. After adjusting socio-demographics, facility characteristics, and clinical treatments (surgery and adjuvant therapy), patients received immunotherapy experienced the significantly prolonged OS compared to those who didn’t [OS (months): 16.0 vs. 9.8, log-rank test p-value: < 0.001; Time Ratio (TR): 1.26 vs. 1.00 (Ref.), multivariable AFT p-value: < 0.001]. In multivariable logistic regressions, compared to patients without immunotherapy, the likelihoods of 6-month (OR: 3.89, p< 0.001), 1-year (OR: 2.38, p< 0.001), and 2-year (OR: 1.58, p=0.001) survival rates were significantly increased for those received immunotherapy. Regarding the long-term survivorship, immunotherapy was significantly associated with a 68% higher likelihood of 3-year survival rate (p=0.004). CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrated that immunotherapy in GBM patients, albeit small sample size, was significantly associated with improved short-term outcomes and 3-year survivorship after adjusting traditional clinical treatments and other covariates.


2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (8) ◽  
pp. 172-189
Author(s):  
Magreth B Tjizumaue ◽  
Krishna Govender

Due to the absence of appropriate Consumer Protection legislation in Namibia, there seems to be a lack of consumer protection, which may result in consumers being exploited. Since the literature reveals that Consumer Awareness, Consumer Protection, Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction influence Customer Loyalty, the aforementioned relationship was explored among consumers of long-term insurance products in Namibia. The researcher embedded the study in the Services Marketing and User’s Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction theory and developed a framework for creating a more aware consumer and thus contribute to the growth and survival of the long-term insurance industry in Namibia.  A survey was conducted using a questionnaire, among a judgmental sample of 407 long-term insurance consumers in Namibia and Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyse (eight) hypothesized relationships among the research constructs alluded to in the title of this study. In summary, it was ascertained that if the customers are fully aware (have sufficient knowledge of the products and their consumer rights), they will feel protected against unfair business practices. Furthermore, if they perceive having received quality services, they are more likely to be satisfied with the service provider and will therefore, remain loyal.


Psibernetika ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Devina Calista ◽  
Garvin Garvin

<p><em>Child abuse by parents is common in households. The impact of violence on children will bring short-term effects and long-term effects that can be attributed to their various emotional, behavioral and social problems in the future; especially in late adolescence that will enter adulthood. Resilience factors increase the likelihood that adolescents who are victims of childhood violence recover from their past experiences</em><em>,</em><em> become more powerful individuals and have a better life. The purpose of this study was to determine the source of resilience in late adolescents who experienced violence from parents in their childhood. This research uses qualitative research methods with in-depth interviews as a method of data collection. The result shows that the three research participants have the aspects of "I Have", "I Am", and "I Can"; a participant has "I Can" aspects as a source of resilience, and one other subject has no source of resilience. The study concluded that parental affection and acceptance of the past experience have role to the three sources of resilience (I Have, I Am, and I Can)</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong><em>Keyword : </em></strong><em>Resilience, adolescence, violence, parents</em></p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 0160323X2110120
Author(s):  
Hai (David) Guo ◽  
Can Chen

Early in the pandemic, Florida municipal managers indicated that forecasting the impact on local revenues was one of their top priorities in responding to the pandemic, yet such a tool has not been widely available. This study offers simple and straightforward fiscal planning guides for assessing the short-term and long-term impacts of the COVID 19 recession on local government revenues by estimating the revenue declines among 411 Florida municipalities from FY 2021 to FY 2023. The forecast results predict revenues will be reduced by $5.11 billion from 2019 pre-pandemic levels for Florida cities in fiscal years 2021 through 2023. The decline is forecast to be 3.54 percent in FY 2021, 4.02 percent in FY 2022, and 3.29 percent in FY 2023. The revenue structure matters for estimating the revenue decline.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1019
Author(s):  
Barbara Frączek ◽  
Aleksandra Pięta ◽  
Adrian Burda ◽  
Paulina Mazur-Kurach ◽  
Florentyna Tyrała

The aim of this meta-analysis was to review the impact of a Paleolithic diet (PD) on selected health indicators (body composition, lipid profile, blood pressure, and carbohydrate metabolism) in the short and long term of nutrition intervention in healthy and unhealthy adults. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of 21 full-text original human studies was conducted. Both the PD and a variety of healthy diets (control diets (CDs)) caused reduction in anthropometric parameters, both in the short and long term. For many indicators, such as weight (body mass (BM)), body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC), impact was stronger and especially found in the short term. All diets caused a decrease in total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG), albeit the impact of PD was stronger. Among long-term studies, only PD cased a decline in TC and LDL-C. Impact on blood pressure was observed mainly in the short term. PD caused a decrease in fasting plasma (fP) glucose, fP insulin, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in the short run, contrary to CD. In the long term, only PD caused a decrease in fP glucose and fP insulin. Lower positive impact of PD on performance was observed in the group without exercise. Positive effects of the PD on health and the lack of experiments among professional athletes require longer-term interventions to determine the effect of the Paleo diet on athletic performance.


Author(s):  
Ali Kamyab ◽  
Steve Andrle ◽  
Dennis Kroeger ◽  
David S. Heyer

Many Minnesota counties are faced with the problem of high vehicle speeds through towns or resort areas that have significant pedestrian traffic. The impact of speed reduction strategies in high-pedestrian areas in rural counties of Minnesota was investigated. Speed data were collected at two selected study sites under their existing conditions ("no-treatment" or "before" condition) and after the proposed speed reduction strategies were installed. Second "after" data conditions were collected to study the short-term and long-term impact of the implemented strategies. The traffic-calming techniques employed at the Twin Lakes site consisted of removable pedestrian islands and pedestrian crossing signs. A dynamic variable message sign that sent a single-word message ("Slow") to motorists traveling over the speed limit was installed at the Bemidji site. The research study shows that the traffic-calming strategy deployed in Twin Lakes was effective in significantly reducing the mean speed and improving speed limit compliance in both the short term and long term. Despite proven effectiveness, the deployed speed reduction treatment in Bemidji Lake failed to lower the speed at the study site. The single-word message on the sign and the location of the sign, as well as a lack of initial enforcement, were the primary reasons for such failure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Omowumi Ayoni Momoh ◽  
Oyefemi Ismail O. Oyetunji

This study investigates the poor claims settlement and demand for insurance policies in Nigeria to provide empirical evidence which would assist not only the insurance companies but also the policymakers by using these findings to design future insurance services and policies that can be geared towards promoting insurance market development. The population focused in the study included few licensed insurance firms in Nigeria. This is due to the fact that they dominate and control the larger interest in the market share. Primary data was used for this study through well-structured questionnaire. Chi- squared statistics and correlation with the tabulated contingency table on the basis of an assumptions were employed. The results show that poor claim settlement has significant effect on demand for Insurance policies in Nigeria and that there is long term and significant relationship between poor claim settlement and demand for insurance policies in Nigeria. The study therefore, recommends that insurance industry should be redefined through appropriate Acts, introducing competitions and innovations in the services so as to compete effectively and meet consumer needs by dealing with changing expectations of policyholders so as to ensure that satisfaction of all the parties are guaranteed.


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