How To Become A Health Actuary: What It Is and Career Path

What is a health actuary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Health Actuaries are responsible for assessing financial risk and calculating premium costs for healthcare and insurance companies. They are involved in analyzing statistical data and marketplace trends, reviewing plan reserves, preparing rate files, and creating aggregated health data-based monthly reports. A Health Actuary will study and interpret medical patterns to uncover opportunities to manage risk. They must keep abreast of current legislation to ensure the company abides by legal guidelines. A good Actuary uses a combination of professional judgment, logical reasoning, and mathematical modeling.

ScoreHealth ActuaryUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $99,496

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate 21%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.00%

Asian 16.50%

Black or African American 2.91%

Hispanic or Latino 3.40%

Unknown 2.91%

White 74.27%

Gender

female 6.67%

male 93.33%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a health actuary

Explore health actuary education requirements

Most common health actuary degrees

Bachelor's

70.6 %

Master's

23.5 %

Associate

5.9 %

Start to develop specific health actuary skills

Skills	Percentages
FSA	51.03%
Term Care	33.32%
GAAP	4.64%
Filings	4.47%
Financial Analysis	3.43%

Complete relevant health actuary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 4-10 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New health actuaries learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a health actuary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real health actuary resumes.

Research health actuary duties and responsibilities

Manage the design, implementation and oversight of all insurance and reinsurancepricing functions and processes for corporation.
Provide clinical exercise physiology services and health/wellness counseling for family practice/sports medicine/orthopedics medical group effecting positive lifestyle changes in patients serve.
Lead actuarial consultant on NALIS to Cyberlife traditional life conversion.

Apply for health actuary jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a health actuary job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams