More people than expected continue to die since the Covid pandemic and a non-profit created by life insurance executives has proposed that insurers test policyholders for various common causes of morbidity.

Articles in the December edition of Best’s Review explore a belief that the pandemic may result in excess mortality levels in the population remaining high for some time.

Houston Perrett, assistant vice-president and actuary, experience studies, Fortitude Re, was speaking during an industry panel discussion at the Society of Actuaries’ Virtual 2023 Life Meeting.

He said: “It’s important as practitioners to be mindful that excess mortality is sticking around and we need to be conscious of how we’re going about to include that in our experience studies, in our mortality studies, to determine whether or not it’s appropriate for our specific blocks of business to see that.”

He said: “The new normal is still elevated to what we were seeing prior to the pandemic. The reasons behind that? There are probably dozens.”

The Best articles refer to a new group, stating: “The Insurance Collaboration to Save Lives, formed by industry executives and insiders, is proposing insurers test policyholders for a battery of common causes of morbidity including heart disease, liver problems and other illnesses.

“The process would involve screening the insured population, testing as needed and triaging, or treating, any conditions unearthed by the tests.

“Under current outlines, the testing kits would run about $100 each and insurers would likely break even through preventing one death in 2,000 among the insured population. The cost could potentially be lowered if the number of conditions tested for are limited and through scale – if, for example, the life insurance industry as a whole adopts the practice, according to the group.”

The mortality pattern was seen across age groups. From January to May of 2023, deaths from all causes were still running more than 10 per cent above 2019 figures, according to data from the ICSL.

“Mortality and morbidity challenges are continuing – this is a big concern,” said Teresa Winer, an actuary with Georgia’s Office of Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner. She said the most recent data showed substantially elevated mortality in several age groups younger than 50.

Researchers at Our World in Data state that excess mortality refers to the number of deaths from all causes during a crisis, higher than the number expected under normal conditions.

Researchers are interested in how the number of deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic compares with the number of expected deaths, had the pandemic not occurred.

Excess mortality is a broader counting of the total impact of the pandemic on deaths, than only deaths directly linked to Covid.

It includes the confirmed deaths but also Covid deaths that were not correctly diagnosed and reported, as well as deaths from other causes that are attributable to the overall crisis conditions.