[MCN] Low interest rates -> higher [health] insurance rates

[Lance Olsen]

Financal Times August 1, 2016 9:12 pm
Insurers: Forced to dig deep
The industry is overhauling its business model after being badly 
affected by low interest rates
Oliver Ralph and Alistair Gray

Excerpt

In the US, insurers specialising in long-term care are under 
particular pressure. Low interest rates have exacerbated the problems 
caused by rising treatment costs and improvements in longevity. Many 
providers have stopped selling new policies.

"No one could have foreseen such a period of low rates," says Howard 
Mills, a former New York insurance superintendent who is now at 
Deloitte. "Long-term care insurance is the first area where it has 
really become acute."

It is not the only area in which insurers are pushing up premiums to 
deal with the pressure. Some holders of "universal life" - protection 
policies that combine death benefits with tax-advantaged savings - 
have also been hit by chunky rate increases.

End excerpt
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6194f264-4dd2-11e6-8172-e39ecd3b86fc.html#axzz4GC11dV9O



-- 
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"Water vapor is also the most abundant greenhouse gas. As the 
equilibrium vapor pressure of water vapor increases rapidly with 
temperature, warming (or cooling) induced by a climate forcing will 
be amplified through water vapor feedback [e.g., Soden et al., 2002]. 
The strength of this feedback is a key determinant of the planet's 
equilibrium climate sensitivity."

Mark C. Serreze, Andrew P. Barrett, and Julienne Stroeve. Recent 
changes in tropospheric water vapor over the Arctic as assessed from 
radiosondes and atmospheric reanalyses.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 117, 2012
doi:10.1029/2011JD017421, 2012

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