Munich Re look at how insurers can develop prevention strategies

Munich Re’s Life Science Report 2025 has insights on global trends and risks that will shape the insurance industry over the next decade. We’ve written about their in-depth looks at AI in Healthcare and Improving Cancer Outcomes sections, and now we’re looking at their Prevention chapter

Prevention is all about intervening before a disease or condition occurs – trying to extend the health span of peoples’ lives and prevent claims from arising in the first place. 

In order to develop effective preventative strategies, insurers need a deep understanding of each of their clients’ unique characteristics, risk factors and health trends. Insurers should focus on areas where they’ll get the most bang for their buck, addressing lifestyle factors that contribute to the most significant preventable health risks and claims drivers – namely cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health conditions. The key preventable causes for these are obesity, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive drinking and poor sleep patterns. Munich Re have a range of tables showing the impact of preventive measures on mortality, disability, critical illness and health care costs.

Munich Re categorise preventative health measures based on the stages of disease they are intended to prevent:

  • Primordial prevention - preventing development of risk factors for the entire population

  • Primary prevention - prevent onset of disease e.g. through lifestyle adjustments and medications

  • Secondary prevention - early diagnosis (e.g. through screening programmes) and prompt treatment

  • Tertiary prevention - manage existing disease to minimise complications and improve outcomes to prevent further morbidity and mortality

  • Quaternary prevention - protect from medical interventions that are likely to cause more harm than good.

To be effective, targeted interventions need to address an individual’s unique needs. By using personalised risk profiling, digital risk scores and advanced analytics, insurers can tailor interventions to maximise impact. To be efficient, insurers need to be able to amplify their prevention efforts to reach a wide audience and use digital systems to automate processes and incorporate real-time feedback. One of the most effective means of prevention is improving health literacy, the ability to navigate health information and make informed decisions. Munich Re suggest that informing policyholders about prevention benefits, enhancing health literacy, making things easy and incentivising members will all help drive positive health outcomes.

As we’ve already seen starting to occur here in NZ, insurers are positioning themselves as active participants in the well-being of their policyholders (with AIA’s Vitality programme perhaps the most notable example of this). We’d love to hear from you instances where your clients health insurance has led to them taking proactive steps to improve their health.

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