INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The CEO of a large network of insurance companies with its corporate offices based in Indianapolis, Indiana, has made an eye-opening claim that over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic – the death rate among working-age people has jumped a stunning 40% when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The statement was made last week by OneAmerica CEO J. Scott Davison during a virtual conference organized by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, where Davison discussed remote-working and vaccination protocols for employees and claimed that the entirety of the American insurance industry are reporting higher-than-usual mortality rates among those aged 18 to 64.
“We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica. The data is consistent across every player in that business,” he said. “Now this is primarily working age people, 18 to 64 that are in employers who are on the screen here. And what we saw just in third quarter, we’re seeing it continue into fourth quarter, is that death rates are up 40 percent over what they were pre-pandemic.”
J. Scott Davison, Chairman, President And CEO, OneAmerica® [Listen to this Statement]
The operating companies of the OneAmerica network are American United Life Insurance Company, The State Life Insurance Company, OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC, McCready and Keene Inc., OneAmerica Securities, Inc., Pioneer Mutual Life Insurance Company, and AUL Reinsurance Management Services, LLC.
“Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, a three-sigma or a 1-in-200-year catastrophe would be 10% increase over pre-pandemic,” Davison added. “So 40% is just unheard of.”
J. Scott Davison, Chairman, President And CEO, OneAmerica® [Listen to this Statement]
OneAmerica, founded in 1877, offers a variety of personal insurance plans, including individual life, disability, long-term care and more; for businesses, they offer employee benefits, retirement plans, and group insurance. They operate in every U.S. state except for New York and according to Davison, are a ‘100 billion dollar company’ with nearly all of its employees being home for almost two years now, something becoming increasingly difficult to maintain as a company.
In addition to deaths being attributed to COVID-19, Davison said, a number of mortalities due to other causes have jumped significantly as well, with the latter actually increasing as the pandemic has continued.
“What the data is showing to us is that the deaths that are being reported as COVID deaths greatly understate the actual death losses among working-age people from the pandemic,” he said. “It may not all be COVID on their death certificate, but deaths are up just huge, huge numbers.”
J. Scott Davison, Chairman, President And CEO, OneAmerica® [Listen to this Statement]
Davison also noted that the number of disability claims – both short term and long term – that OneAmerica has seen have increased as well saying that despite disability insurance being the smallest area of their business, he expects it to cost the company over one hundred million in claims, but that any of these extra costs are already being forecasted and will trickle down to employers via ‘premium loads’ which translate to higher premiums just as they would with any other underwriting risk factor.
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