World leaders prepare for UN climate change summit
Around 120 world leaders and hundreds of company executives are gathering in New York ahead of the UN Climate Change Summit which begins tomorrow (Wednesday). It will be the largest meeting of its kind and aims to gain consensus on reducing greenhouse gases and boosting resilience globally. Margareta Wahlström, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction said: “Heads of State are expected to make national announcements on both mitigation and adaptation and we do hope that these announcements will include commitments to disaster risk reduction and to the post 2015 framework for Disaster risk Reduction that will be adopted in Sendai, Japan next year during the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction as they are part of the same agenda.” The Summit takes place as some parts of the world recover from weather-related incidents over the last few days. The Philippines has been hit by a storm with 200,000 evacuated in Manila just days after a typhoon hit the city. Atlantic Canada has also been hit by strong winds and heavy rain. Weather related incidents will be a major focus of the UN Summit. Read the full story.
Changing future for big insurance companies
Big insurance companies will look very different in years to come as change in other sectors forces new focuses. This is according to writer and consultant Wendell Potter who says that the big names in the health insurance sector may end up making most of their revenue from non-insurance business. Potter points to the changes that we have seen already in the sector in the US and elsewhere, especially the shift from multi-line insurance to focusing on one or two. With this new model, we then saw some of the big names such as Aetna and Prudential changing the lines they were selling in favor of more profitable areas of the business. Potter also highlights the plan by aircraft manufacturer Boeing to provide healthcare benefits to its employees without an insurance company. There is evidence, he says, of the large insurers positioning themselves in a new space, often referring to themselves as providers of healthcare rather than health insurance providers. This subtle but important change in language hints at a shifting focus in the industry. Read the full story.
Why e-cigarettes may not have the benefits that users hope
While there appears to be some benefits to health in using e-cigarettes rather than smoking regular ones, users who hope to see better rates for health insurance may be disappointed. In fact ‘vaping’, as the use of electronic cigarettes is known, could actually increase insurance premiums for a number of reasons. Firstly, they are new with no reliable long-term data on their use, they are also unregulated and also many brands still contain nicotine. There has also been concern raised about possible effects of secondary inhalation of the vapor mist released by the e-cigarettes. This could be a concern for workplaces that allow their use, especially if they do not allow traditional smoking. While long-term data may change the situation in the years to come, for now there appears little benefit from an insurance point of view. A survey earlier this year by Munich American Reassurance Co. showed that 90 per cent of the insurers questioned still considered vaping to be smoking. Read the full story.
