An insurance policy shaper who helped change how life insurers manage their reserves has come up with a new idea: establishing an organization that will get down in the legislative trenches and change how the United States handles long-term care finance.
The policy shaper, Scott Harrison, was one of the most visible promoters of the concept of "principles-based reserving," or the idea of having life insurers set their reserves based on modern statistical forecasting and the judgment of actuaries, rather than static formulas.
He won that fight: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has adopted principles-based reserving models.
(Related: Insurers Mark Significant Regulatory Shift)
Harrison has been looking for something else to do. He has started to hone in on the concept of taking some of the long-term care finance reform ideas in all of those many, many long-term care think tank reports and trying to get one or more of those ideas turned into a real program.
Harrison said last week, in an interview, that he's dubbed his new, embryonic organization a "do tank," because the goal will be to do things, as opposed to thinking about what someone else should do.