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During the early 1970s, faced with the serious demographic situation, China began to fully implement the policy of family planning in urban and rural regions. Nowadays, the problems of pension and medical care for aged parents confronted by the first generation of the one‐child family have begun to gradually appear. Meanwhile, China's population and the family planning are also faced with some problems that are difficult to solve, including unbalanced fertility rate of urban and rural population, the gender imbalance, the difficulty of the risk diversification in a one‐child family, as well as the profound contradiction between the stability of the family planning policy and the drive of administrative measures. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the integrated‐scheduled life security system of the one‐child family in urban and rural areas, in order to overcome the problems and to promote the transformation of the family planning policy. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the life security system for China's one‐child families.

The life security system for the one‐child family proposed by this paper consists of three issues: the basic security based on the level of social security, the additional security of the policy insurance and the supplementary security of the commercial insurance. The paper begins with the history of the family planning policy in the first section and then go through some relevant articles regarding complementary measures such as maternity insurance, rural endowment insurance that only focused on one aspect of issues associated with the family planning. In section three, four typical problems are listed for the purpose of following discussion of corresponding solutions which are full of deficiency in section four. In part five, the integrated planning of the life security system for Chinese one‐child family is elaborated with risk and fund management. In the last part, we conclude that the family planning policy maintains stable, whereas measures to be taken are adjusted along with changeable new problems.

The policy insurance plays an increasingly important role in dealing with the life security of older people in one‐child families. It may be better to promote the kind of insurance.

The paper comprehensively discusses the life security system for Chinese families in compliance with the family planning policy.

This study aims to examine how the number of choices consumers have influences provider satisfaction, plan satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) in the health insurance industry.

Partial least squares (PLS) and structural equation modeling (SmartPLS) was used to conduct multi-group analysis to analyze the structural models. Data were collected online using Amazon mechanical turk, resulting in 425 respondents.

This study finds that the number of choices consumers have impacts the strength of provider and plan satisfaction and positive WOM. Also, this study finds that provider satisfaction is generally more impactful than plan satisfaction when generating positive WOM.

This study extends reactance theory, satisfaction and WOM based on choice options to the health insurance industry where credence attributes are prevalent and the analysis includes two satisfaction constructs in the structural model, whereas multiple satisfaction constructs are often overlooked.

Key State Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan (a disguised case of an actual BCBS Plan) is the merged product of three state plans. Initially burdened with a reputation of poor customer service, Key State's executives decided to invest heavily in service improvement, eventually achieving superior levels. Key State's high-quality customer service emerged as a true competitive advantage for its customers, who were primarily businesses and health benefits consultants who influenced corporate purchasers of health insurance. The Key State brand came to be synonymous with personal service, security, choice, and dependability. But the health care insurance market was changing under Key State's feet. Spiraling costs meant that high-quality service became less of a competitive advantage as employers were lured by low-cost, low-service providers. Many employers cut or dropped health care benefits entirely, swelling the ranks of the under- and uninsured, who in turn were extremely price-sensitive when shopping for health insurance on their own. Finally, the health care insurance market was being revolutionized by financial institutions willing to hold health benefit accounts and pay providers directly, thereby eliminating the need for Key State as a mediator. Key State executives were aware of these changes but were challenged by the mindset, culture, and organizational design custom-fit to their business accounts. The case asks the reader to consider whether Key State has the right number of target markets, whether it should have one brand or several for its different target markets, what it should do for the uninsured, and how it should improve its brand experience in light of the industry's changing landscape. All of these decisions will have significant implications for the organizational design of Key State.

To better understand the challenges involved in a successful health insurance company to cope with a rapidly changing and unpredictable environment; to formulate a new strategy and a new organizational design to accomplish this adaptation.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the risk management benefits provided by the supplemental coverage option (SCO) insurance plan which was created in the 2014 Farm Bill. Specifically, the marginal expected utility benefits are compared with the potential additional subsidy cost introduced by the new program for a stylized example of a corn producer.

The paper uses a stylized simulation model examines the preferred insurance program choice for a typical Midwestern corn farmer. The expected utility of the farmer is calculated under their preferred insurance program choice both with and without the availability of the SCO program, and compared to the case where crop insurance is not available. Scenarios are examined for a range of farmer risk aversion levels, different levels of correlation between farm-level and county-level corn yields, and case with and without insurance premium subsidies.

The SCO program is found to enter into the preferred insurance program choice for risk averse farmers. As risk aversion increases, farmers are estimated to prefer higher coverage levels for individual products along with SCO coverage. While the availability of existing crop insurance programs are shown to substantially increase the expected utility of farmers, the marginal impact of adding SCO to the crop insurance program is relatively small. Furthermore, the additional expected benefits generated by SCO are shown to include both risk management and expected return components. With subsidies removed, the estimated marginal benefits provided by SCO are reduced significantly.

The findings of this paper can help inform the policy debate for future farm bills as agricultural support programs continue to evolve. The results in this paper can also be used to help explain farm-level decision making related to crop insurance program choices.

This paper contributes to the literature by documenting a new, federally supported risk management programs made available to farmers in the 2014 Farm Bill and evaluates the marginal benefits the SCO program offers US crop producers.

The purpose of this paper is to use simulation analysis to assess farmer choice between crop insurance and supplemental revenue options as proposed during development of the Agricultural Act of 2014.

The certainty equivalent of wealth is used to rank farm choices and assess the effects of supplemental revenue options on the crop insurance plan and coverage level chosen by the producer under a range of farm attributes. The risk-reducing effectiveness of the select programs is also examined through their impact on the farm revenue distribution. The dependence structure of yield and prices is modeled by applying copula techniques on historical data.

Farm program supplemental revenue programs generally have no effect on crop insurance choices. Crop insurance supplemental revenue programs typically reduce crop insurance coverage at high coverage levels. An individual plan of crop insurance combined with a supplemental revenue insurance plan may substitute for incumbent area crop insurance plans.

The analysis provides insights into farmers’ possible choices by focussing on alternative crops and farm attributes and extensive scenarios, using current data, crop insurance plans and programs contained in the 2014 Farm Bill and related bills. The results should be of value to policy officials and producers in regards to the design and use of risk management tools.

This chapter summarizes the major determinants of health insurance coverage rates among young adults. Socioeconomic status, demographics, actual and perceived health status, perceived value, and perceived need are all examined in order to determine what the literature reveals regarding each variable and how each variable impacts a young adult's decision to purchase health insurance. Results indicate that socioeconomic status, demographics, perceived value, and perceived need were the most significant determinates of health insurance status of young adults. A conceptual framework is also examined and used to illustrate theoretical implications. Managerial implications for marketing health plans to young adults are also addressed. Finally, policy implications concerning the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are addressed.

Disparities in access to health services continue to exist among adults age 65 and older in the United States despite near-universal insurance coverage provided through Medicare. One potential barrier to health service utilization is knowledge of health insurance coverage. Medicare has been drastically restructured in the recent past, and as the program becomes increasingly privatized, Medicare enrollees are left with more choices, but also a more complicated system through which to navigate. This study examines the relationship between Medicare enrollee knowledge of their Medicare health insurance and sociodemographic factors, health status, and the use of health services. Data was analyzed from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative study of the U.S. civilian, non-institutionalized, household population. Included in this study were Black, Hispanic, and White respondents aged 65 and older who participated in the NHIS from 2004 to 2009 (N=30,002). The prevalence of a lack of Medicare knowledge appears to be low among Medicare enrollees, with 13% reporting they did not know the answer to one or more questions about their coverage. Age and chronic illness status were found to be related to Medicare plan knowledge, with older adults and those who were not chronically ill more likely to report they did not know some aspect about their Medicare plan. Respondents who reported not knowing at least one question about their Medicare plan reported significantly fewer medical office visits and more time since they last interacted with a doctor, were less likely to have talked with a medical specialist, and have had surgery over the past year. The findings from this study suggest that knowledge of health insurance coverage is an important correlate of health service utilization, which may be shaped by disparities in access to health insurance across the life course.

Explains the importance of the risk management function as part of the disaster recovery‐planning process. Explains what you can and cannot insure and the importance of not underestimating the “indemnity period”. Explains methods of establishing the “sum insured”, along with the establishment of premiums, the payment of claims, and the importance of post‐disaster insurance reviews.

This research examines factors influencing the adoption of crop and revenue insurance. This is accomplished by estimating a multinomial logit model of insurance choices facing U.S. farmers. Results indicate significant differences in the probabilities of adoption of each insurance plan. The levels of selected explanatory variables, such as operator’s education level, debt‐to‐asset ratio, off‐farm income, soil productivity, participation in production and marketing contracts, and type of farm ownership, appear to be the determinants of the probability of having adopted each insurance plan.

Exemption from hospital charges may appear as an essential policy in order to support the poor. Such policies can function for the fulfillment of governments’ social- and justice-based responsibilities in public hospitals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pattern of offering discounts to the poor and the effect of Iran’s recent Health Sector Evolution Plan on it.

The authors conducted analytical research longitudinally on the data related to cash discounts offered to the poor within a teaching hospital. Data were collected through the period of four months, September to December 2013, before the establishment of the Health Sector Evolution Plan, and in the similar months through 2014, after the establishment of the Health Sector Evolution Plan, in order to compare the amount of cash discounts. The type of insurance, length of stay, amount of discounts offered to patients, and total costs of hospital charges were studied and compared by referring to the social working department. Data were analyzed using the χ²-test, Mann-Whitney U test, ANOVA, and regression analysis aided by SPSS 20.

The number of patients offered discounts or exempted from payment in 2014 reduced compared to the number in 2013. The highest rate of demand for discounts was related to patients covered by Emdad Committee followed by those who had no insurance. The ratio of discount to cost in the oncology ward was higher than other groups.

The results of the present study can contribute to the plans of health system policy makers in organizing measures for supporting poor patients toward accessing healthcare services.