Private Health Insurance Premiums and Rate Reviews

[Excerpt] In general, the premiums charged by health insurance companies represent actuarial estimates of the amount that would be required to cover three main components: (1) the expected cost of the health benefits covered under the plan, (2) the business administrative costs of operating the plan, and (3) a profit. The final premium calculation often is adjusted upward or downward to reflect several factors, such as making up for a previous financial loss. Health insurance premiums have been trending up, while the value of coverage has trended down. Available data indicate that both administrative and medical costs continue to rise, but the rate of growth in these expenses slowed between 2008 and 2009. The data also suggest that the rise in medical costs is primarily attributable to the price of services, not increased utilization. The rise in the cost of health insurance has received considerable attention by Congress and resulted in calls for more regulation. The regulation of private health insurance has traditionally been under the jurisdiction of the states. Most states have used their regulatory authority over the business of insurance to require the filing of health insurance documents containing rate information for one or more insurance market segments or plan types. With the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, PPACA) on March 23,2010, and subsequent amendments, the federal government will assume a role in private health insurance rate reviews by providing grants to states and requiring health insurance companies to provide justifications for proposed rate increases determined to be unreasonable. This report provides an overview of the concepts, regulation, and available public data regarding private health insurance premiums. This report will be updated to reflect relevant legislative activity and the availability of new public data

The absorption spectrum of calcium vapor - 1660 - 2028 angstrom Scientific report no. 5

Absorption spectrum, atomic energy levels, and electron transitions for calcium vapor between 1660 to 2028 angstrom

Oscillator strengths of the red autoionizing lines of calcium

Shock tube measurement of calcium autoionization line oscillator strength for use in stellar atmospheric model calculation

Samples from Martian craters: Origin of the Martian soil by hydrothermal alteration of impact melt deposits and atmospheric interactions with ejecta during crater formation

The origin of the Martian soil is an important question for understanding weathering processes on the Martian surface, and also for understanding the global geochemistry of Mars. Chemical analyses of the soil will provide an opportunity to examine what may be a crustal average, as studies of loess on the Earth have demonstrated. In this regard the origin of the Martian soil is also important for understanding the chemical fractionations that have affected the composition of the soil. Several processes that are likely to contribute to the Martian soil are examined

Experiences with the design and implementation of flutter suppression systems

Research efforts aim at flutter suppression are discussed. The application of active controls technology to reduce the aeroelastic response of aircraft structures is discussed. Feedback control, control law design processes and synthesis, wind tunnel studies, and delta-wing wind tunnel models are discussed

FLIGHT INVESTIGATION OF THE LONGITUDINAL STABILITY AND CONTROL CHARACTERISTICS OF A FOUR-PROPELLER TILT-WING VTOL MODEL WITH A PROGRAMMED FLAP

Flight investigation of the longitudinal stability and control characteristics of a four-propeller tilt-wing vtol model with programmed fla

Preliminary comparative assessment of land use for the Satellite Power System (SPS) and alternative electric energy technologies

A preliminary comparative assessment of land use for the satellite power system (SPS), other solar technologies, and alternative electric energy technologies was conducted. The alternative technologies are coal gasification/combined-cycle, coal fluidized-bed combustion (FBC), light water reactor (LWR), liquid metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR), terrestrial photovoltaics (TPV), solar thermal electric (STE), and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). The major issues of a land use assessment are the quantity, purpose, duration, location, and costs of the required land use. The phased methodology described treats the first four issues, but not the costs. Several past efforts are comparative or single technology assessment are reviewed briefly. The current state of knowledge about land use is described for each technology. Conclusions are drawn regarding deficiencies in the data on comparative land use and needs for further research

Application of constrained optimization to active control of aeroelastic response

Active control of aeroelastic response is a complex in which the designer usually tries to satisfy many criteria which are often conflicting. To further complicate the design problem, the state space equations describing this type of control problem are usually of high order, involving a large number of states to represent the flexible structure and unsteady aerodynamics. Control laws based on the standard Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) method are of the same high order as the aeroelastic plant. To overcome this disadvantage of the LQG mode, an approach developed for designing low order optimal control laws which uses a nonlinear programming algorithm to search for the values of the control law variables that minimize a composite performance index, was extended to the constrained optimization problem. The method involves searching for the values of the control law variables that minimize a basic performance index while satisfying several inequality constraints that describe the design criteria. The method is applied to gust load alleviation of a drone aircraft

Some experiences with active control of aeroelastic response

Flight and wind tunnel tests were conducted and multidiscipline computer programs were developed as part of investigations of active control technology conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center. Unsteady aerodynamics approximation, optimal control theory, optimal controller design, and the Delta wing and DC-10 models are described. The drones for aerodynamics and structural testing (DAST program) for evaluating procedures for aerodynamic loads prediction and the design of active control systems on wings with significant aeroelastic effects is described as well as the DAST model used in the wind tunnel tests