Some Aspects of Sickness Insurance

Although the subject we are about to discuss is frequently referred to as “Health” Insurance, I venture to submit that as a mere question of exactness Sickness Insurance is the correct term. The common method of naming systems of Insurance is not, however, too exact, but that is no sufficient reason for being inexact where exactness is possible. Insurance against fire, insurance against accident, and insurance against sickness are expressions, each of which carries with it a precise meaning; but to speak of “insurance against health” would be a contradiction and an impossibility. In Life work we refer to Life Assurance, while in reality we mean insurance against death, and in respect of this particular business, whoever may have been responsible for the primary use of the term was wise in his generation. To write or speak perpetually upon the subject of death even in its relation to insurance would be a lugubrious vocation to engage in. The subject itself would not only be uninviting but repellent, and therefore as far as possible men would seek to avoid its discussion. For the same reason I imagine “Health” Insurance is preferred by some to Sickness Insurance; but the description cannot be supported by the same reasoning, while, as I have said, it is incorrect and therefore unnecessary.

On a mode of graduating a Table of Mortality

Graduation of all kinds is most attractive. The highest mathematical minds have apparently lingered upon it with delight, and when I glance down the weighty list, I feel that I, of all persons, should have shrunk from touching it. Most of these men have treated the subject in a highly theoretical manner, and have furnished formulæ that are extremely difficult to apply. A few, however, have followed in their footsteps and elaborated something that is practical. Other enthusiasts have searched for and have thought that they had found a ‘Law of Mortality.’ Some are still searching for it, and more will continue the search in all time coming. A Law of Mortality seems to me to be as illusive as the rainbow. The law found is only the law of some mathemathical process of summation.The method of graduation indeed should vary with the matter to be graduated. When applied to the probability curve, it is intensely fascinating, and there appears to me to be occasional opportunities in our business of so applying it. I do not profess to put forward any new scheme. I do not propose to electrify the subject. I possess no wizard's wand. All I propose to do is to elaborate a very simple exposition of the most elementary principles on the subject of differences, but I am bold enough to state that, in my opinion, it is all that is necessary in the graduation of a table of mortality.

On the Mortality in certain Hazardous or Unhealthy Occupations, as shown by the Official Statistics

The Supplement to the fifty-fifth annual report of the Registrar-General for England, issued early in 1898, contains a mass of statistical material bearing on the mortality among persons engaged in various occupations, much more important and complete than any previously available. The principal object of the following Paper, is to examine the information therein contained bearing on the mortality in certain hazardous or unhealthy occupations, with a view to obtaining some guidance in fixing the extra premiums which should be charged for insurances on the lives of persons engaged in these occupations. In some cases, the information obtained from the Supplement to the fifty-fifth report has been supplemented from other official sources.For the purpose of comparing the mortality of persons in different occupations, Dr. Tatham, the Superintendent of Statistics at the General Register Office, has, following his predecessor, Dr. Ogle, made use of the method of ‘comparative mortality figures.’

On the construction of a Table of Mortality

Gentlemen,—Allow me to thank you very cordially for electing me to preside over your meetings during the ensuing Session It is an honour very greatly appreciated by every one who has been selected to fill this chair. Indeed I feel doubly honoured, seeing that I am the first to address you in the new Hall of the Faculty of Actuaries under the gaze of the stony eyes of our own immortal Napier. Your election reminds me that I had the honour of presiding over your earliest meetings and that I also had the pleasure of reading the earliest papers that were presented for your consideration. These three papers I am proud to believe have been diligently perused by nearly every student of Actuarial Science, forming as they do the wicket opening into wider fields, the earliest lessons of the course. They have, as I have been told, been the guiding rays of light which induced some of our most eminent Actuarial stars, presently shining in our firmament, to follow in the pursuit of higher knowledge, and to join the profession. These simple papers have been printed three times, and are again out of print. Gentlemen, I do wish I were able to repeat that enthusiasm. It seems to me now to be a much more simple matter to find language to describe something which one is striving to understand for oneself, and labouring to make clear to one's own comprehension, than to write an essay upon something which appears so plain and so palpable that the wonder is how any one could fail to interpret the language of the symbols.

Notes on Life Assurance in the United States of America

My principal object in presenting this paper is to assist the student in his endeavour to obtain a knowledge of Life Insurance as it is practised in the United States of America, and to correct certain misconceptions regarding it among many of the older members of the profession.The casual reader is apt to receive wrong impressions of Insurance in America through a want of knowledge of the conditions surrounding it. He is probably under the impression that nearly all American companies do business on the tontine plan, that new assurance is obtained at enormous cost, and that “Assessment Insurance” of the original type is the only system practised. Before proceeding to discuss these matters, it will be well to give a brief review of the history of Insurance in the United States. Without historical knowledge it is difficult to understand the legislative enactments regarding “Old Line” Insurance, or to realise the astonishingly large proportions to which Assessment Insurance has grown.

On Extra Risk: with some Particulars of the recent Investigation of the Mortality of Persons engaged in the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors

The lives which present themselves for assurance are, in the process of selection, divided into three main groups or classes:—I. Lives insurable at the ordinary rate.II. Lives insurable only at extra rates.III. Uninsurable lives.Although, in measuring what we call “extra risk,” only the subdivisions of Class II. are of practical significance, yet each of the three classes admits of almost indefinite subdivision in respect of the quality of the lives embraced in it.In the first class, some lives present no flaw of any kind in health, physical condition, occupation, or family history; others, at the further end of the scale, present flaws which bring them close to the border line of Class II.; and between those two extremes there is every degree of variation. Using terms that are not unfamiliar, Class I. may be subdivided into three distinct groups:—(a) Unexceptionable lives, presenting no unfavourable feature.(b) Good average lives, in which the personal or family history, or the physical condition, is not entirely faultless, but which present no feature likely to tell against the life-prospects.(c) Fair average lives, presenting some flaw or imperfection, or some combination of unfavourable circumstances, which only falls short of requiring an extra premium.

Some Medical Aspects of Life Assurance

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I accepted with some misgiving the invitation with which your President honoured me to read a paper before your Society on some medical subject connected with Life Assurance, because I doubted my ability to deal with it in any way worthy of the audience. When I further reflected that some of those present might be the Managers and Actuaries and even the Chief Medical Officers of Companies for which I have examined in London, I sought a loophole for honourable escape. Now, when the eyes of some of these officials are upon me, I feel inclined to beat a dishonourable retreat.Many valuable contributions have been made to this subject, and subjects bearing upon it, of late years; and if I gave you an account of the bibliography alone, it would occupy the time at my disposal. The President probably thought that the study of this literature would be of educational advantage to me; and, if so, I can assure him that it has fulfilled the object he had in view.The title of Some Medical Aspects of Life Assurance seemed to be one which would enable me to escape the dangers of attempting to give you a statistical dissertation on my own experience, while it would admit of some general remarks on the method of Life Assurance examination.

Some Notes on the Selection of Lives for Assurance

Gentlemen,—Allow me in the first place to thank you most sincerely for the honour which you have conferred upon me, in electing me President of the Actuarial Society for this Session. A consideration of the long list of those who have been my predecessors in the Chair, makes me all the more sensible of the honour, and it is therefore with diffidence though with great pleasure that I accept the post. While my residence out of Edinburgh will prevent me from presiding at as many ordinary meetings of the Society as I should like, I think I may assert with confidence, that no one takes a deeper interest in its progress. I have been a member of it for thirty-three years, and have experienced the varied benefits which a Society conducted as yours has been, is able to bestow, and to which many here are largely indebted for assistance in their career. The main benefits to which I refer are (first) the stimulating effect of intercourse with men desirous to raise the standard of our profession, founded as it is on the threefold basis of exact science, true benevolence, and honest business principles—a combined foundation which few professions are able to claim; (second) the information and culture which are gained from the perusal and study of the papers read to the Society; and (third) what is perhaps more valuable than either of the other two, and which therefore I would more emphatically impress upon the younger members—the training which is obtained in preparing papers for a Society like this.

Past and Future With some Thoughts on Heredity

Exactly twenty years have elapsed since I first had the honour of addressing the members of the Actuarial Society as their Honorary President, being then but on the threshold of my official life.Again ten years later I once more occupied this chair.And now after the lapse of another ten years, as my professional career draws somewhat near its close, and you have again kindly asked me to become your President, there comes on me in meeting you at the beginning of your session for the purpose of offering to you a few words of welcome, a desire, on the one hand, to look back over the past—to get out of the trees, as it were, and see the forest,—and on the other, already throwing loose the trammels of daily routine, to turn in the forward direction with an endeavour to peer some way into the future and see what is in store for us there.I will accordingly endeavour to ascertain in what way our science and the great practical businesses built upon it—and to promote which actuarial science mainly exists—have been tending during these more recent years, and, by carrying on the lines in the same direction, to make some forecast of the conditions that will prevail when you, who are entering on the actuarial profession, in your turn take the helm of management.