Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:42 am Post subject: Effect of Bird flu on life insurance industry
H5N1 strain of the influential Bird flu is posing a serious threat to human lives of late. Under the present circumstances, business houses are made aware of taking precautions in order to cope with any adverse conditions. Henceforth, the need arises to perfectly figure out a business continuity management plan and also ensure a research on the key risk indicators.
Questions might arise, keeping in mind the capabilities of some of the insurers in terms of an immobile reinsurance market. Owing to a static life insurance coverage situation and pertaining to the HHS prophecy, the worth of death claims from the flu for group life insurance would amount to $11 billion and $20 billion in terms of individual life insurance, resulting in a sum total of $31 billion.
The insurance industry is adorned by some companies who have a strong financial potential, but at the same time it also has some dark patches in terms of some relatively weaker ones. A 'severe pandemic' might just sound too harsh on a small fry to survive.
Under such consequences an absorption of the smaller players by their home state's insurance department would seem inevitable. This influenza pandemic would certainly invite quite a handful of the industry dilemmas beyond the claims. The count of the aftermath would be gradually unfolded within a span of six to nine months. This in turn might see the investment markets slowly gaining back control within a period of time. An abrupt increase in the workload and a sudden reduction in the workforce would certainly raise a wall in front of the employing insurers. _________________ Register Now to have your Insurance queries solved.
I don't think that it can impact life insurance that heavily, the numbers back in November 12 of this year, say that over 300 have been affected and 200 have been killed. Thats a small number, but if it mutates, and becomes highly contagious through human-to-human contact, then it will cause great increases in insurance rates for affected areas.
I'll admit, the Spanish flu epidemic 90 years ago killed several million people, but these days, we have vaccines, medicine, and quarantining methods to reduce deaths and infections.
Unless it starts killing a lot of people, I doubt it will affect insurance rates that heavily on a global scale, unless you contract it before getting insurance. The flu is quite serious at times, but unless it turns into a huge crisis, then it wont jack it up all that much. Like I said, it's not all that bad unless humans start spreading it.
I also looked up the mortality rate, it can reach 100% in just a few days. That's quite nasty. _________________ I have a new personal crusade. I'm going to hunt down the people who have strong opinions on subjects they don't understand. Then I'll bop them with this cardboard tube.- Dogbert
I ain't a legal expert, take what I say with a grain of salt.
I think it would depend on where you live and how many cases has come up, epidemic or pandemic. The media really blew this one up and caused a lot of fear.
My wife is a paramedic and has to take Department of Homeland Security training (yes I pick at her about being an official member of Dale Dribble's "shadow government") and it has started including pandemic contingency training. She told me that the CDC beleives that some sort of pandemic is invetable just because there has been one every century in history but that it being a bird flu mutation is no more likely than anything else.
The last global pandemic happened during world war 1 and was caused by a rare strain of asiatic flu.
If it does happen I think insurance will be the least of anyone's worries...
Mac
