Insurance Newsletter Issue 11 – Life Insurance Insights: Receding Excess Mortality, Fights Against Supergerms, Specialty Drugs and Risk Managers, and More
Insurance Newsletter – Issue 11
In the May edition of Sikka’s life underwriting newsletter, we look at the receding (but still above average) excess mortality, the fight against future supergerms, increasing specialty drug costs and their effect on payers and risk managers, and Bestow’s latest tech ventures.
Excess Mortality Recedes, but Remains Above Normal
While the materialization of what the life insurance business calls “excess mortality” during the COVID-19 pandemic was not unexpected, its persistence has raised questions, including whether the elevated levels of death – and disability – are becoming the new normal? Excess mortality was the bane of the industry’s financial results over the last few years, leading to depressed earnings and losses. The term is a polite way to say more people were dying than was expected or predicted, thus the policy claims were higher and the payouts greater than the companies had reserved for.
Released May 7th, 2024:
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Fight Against Future Supergerms Heats Up
Drug makers around the world are asking insurers and other companies to help them to speed up the development of antibiotics and other antimicrobials. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations wants help with getting the Group of 20 — an organization for 19 of the world’s richest countries, the European Union and the African Union — to support efforts to develop antibiotics that may have relatively low sales totals but be critical to preventing the spread of deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Released May 16th, 2024:
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Why Are Specialty Drug Costs Increasing and What is its Impact on Payers and Risk Managers
David Saric, of Insurance Business, sat down with Verikai’s senior sales executives, Mike Gold and James Hughes, to discuss why the cost of specialty drugs has been rising and its impact on payers, risk managers, etc. The rising costs of specialty drugs in the US can be traced to these three separate phenomena: the demand for gene therapy drugs, pharmaceutical interest in making more money, and marketing laws. “A lot of times these pharmaceutical companies are incentivized to come up with new drugs because they’re protected by the 20-year R&D clauses in the US. This is an area they can make money in,” said Mike Gold.
Released Apr 30th, 2024:
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Bestow to Sell its Life Insurance Company to Sammons
Bestow Inc. announced Thursday it will sell its life insurance company to Sammons Financial Group. Bestow Life Insurance Co. will transition to Sammons as soon as the state of Iowa approves the deal, following the required hearing scheduled for May 28. Bestow Inc. will continue to leverage its technology and platform as part of the company’s strategy plan “to become the dominant technology platform for the life and annuities industry,” Bestow CEO and cofounder Melbourne O’Banion said in a statement.
Released May 9th, 2024:
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Learn more about Sikka and how our Oral Healthcare data can help with mortality risk – email lewis.goldman@sikka.ai.
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