From the October 2015 Baden-Baden Reinsurance Meeting. The consolidation of the reinsurance industry that is being observed in 2015 apparently is driven by capacity overload, successive years of rate declines and persistently falling profitability. But are mergers and acquisitions (M&As) the right answer? Of course, sheer scale matters but the upside of better mutualization hits its limits fairly quickly and unmanaged diversification is fraught with dangers. In fact, new

Enrollment in public health insurance exchanges is expected to grow modestly in 2016, to reach a total number ranging from 9 to 12 million. The majority of current customers – approximately 9 million – is expected to re-enroll. However, the Congressional Budget Office earlier had projected enrollments to reach 20 million by the end of 2016; the shortfall is most significant and the projected number of enrollees likely will

Shareholders of Aetna and Humana in October 2015 voted separately and approved overwhelmingly the health insurers’ proposed $37 billion merger. Aetna shareholders approved the issuance of up to 127 million common shares to Humana stockholders, who agreed to the terms of the July 2015 merger agreement with Aetna as finalized in July. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2016 after the approval of state

Offering on-site health services is not likely to have a material impact on employers’ medical expenses, but it can be useful in reducing employee absences and workers compensation costs, according to a report by the National Business Group on Health and Truven Health Analytics. In a study of 107 large employers’ health care, workers comp and disability benefit strategies released this week, the availability of on-site health clinics was