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January 17, 2012 at 11:46 AM
The latest batch of mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hints that disability insurers may benefit somewhat less from improvements in health than they have in past years.
One of the trends that’s helped disability insurers over the decades is that actual morbidity is usually quite a bit less than expected.
That’s partly because disability insurers do a good job of making sure the people they insure are healthy and hard working, but partly because the average level of national health has been increasing.
In 2010, however, preliminary CDC death statistics show that overall life expectancy increased just 0.1 years, to 78.7, and no age group had a life expectancy increase of more than 0.1 years.
No Americans ages 50 and older enjoyed any increase in life expectancy.
The age-adjusted death rate from heart disease did fall 2.4%, and the age-adjusted death rate from accidents fell 1.1%.
The number of deaths per 100,000 decreased about 2.7% for people ages 45 to 54 and 5.3% for people ages 35 to 44, but only 1.5% for people ages 25 to 34 – the people in the “Young Invincibles” category who are least likely to have health insurance.
There are also plenty of studies coming in talking about consumers, including many who have private health insurance, but with substantial deductible and co-payment requirements, who’ve responded to the weak economy and higher out-of-pocket health care costs by going without medical treatment.
If the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) simply goes away, without any reforms taking its place, or if PPACA takes effect more or less as planned, but doesn’t end up doing much for those Young Invincibles, maybe their mortality and morbidity rates will continue to plateau, or even start to deteriorate.
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