Europe’s heatwaves threaten insurers’ earnings, rating agency S&P says
S&P expects heat-related deaths and worsening health conditions to push up payouts for life and health insurers, and for the reinsurers standing behind them, with customers potentially picking up the cost through higher premiums. An ageing continent sharpens the effect: the EU share of people aged 65 and over climbed from 16.4% to 21.6% between 2004 and 2024, and the share aged 80 and over from 3.8% to 6.1%. Drought and wildfire claims have risen through the long hot summer too. The agency's point is that rising temperatures have not yet been fully written into existing contracts, so the repricing is still to come. It is a financial assessment, not a clinical study.
For you: Worth knowing that heat is being treated as a health risk with a price tag, and that the risk concentrates in older age groups.
What it shows: Reported by Guardian (health) and not verified by us: we could not trace this story to a published paper, so treat it as news rather than evidence we have checked.