Health Insurance in the Age of Big Data and AI

Monday, 9 June 2025

3:30  – 5 PM

Venue: Gaia Lecture Theatre 9 level 3 (#ABS-03-LT9) 

Chairperson: Asst Prof Jinggong Zhang

Abstract

As a way of controlling healthcare costs, most countries transfer healthcare financial risk from payers to providers.  Despite many initiatives and programs aimed at controlling costs, costs continue to rise at a rate that significantly exceeds the general rate of inflation.  We examine what is different about the health market that causes out-of-control cost increases and what can be done about them.  Do some of the recent developments in data, modeling and AI hold promise or is this problem insoluble?

About the Speaker

Dr. Duncan is an experienced health actuary (FIA, FSA), an Adjunct Professor of Actuarial Statistics at the University of California Santa Barbara and a Board Director of the Society of Actuaries.  He has founded or co-founded 5 healthcare analytics companies, including Santa Barbara Actuaries Inc., which merged with Arbital Health in December 2023, and to which he remains an advisor.  Dr. Duncan holds a graduate degree in economics from Balliol College, Oxford and a PhD in Statistics from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the author of two textbooks on the SOA health actuarial syllabus.