First COVID-19 Wave Hit Preferred Insureds Hard: Work Group

For insured women in their 70s, the odds of dying increased by well over 20%. For insured women in their 80s, the odds of dying increased about 10%.

For insured men in their 70s, the odds of dying from all causes increased by about 15%. For insured men in their 80s, the odds of dying from any cause were about the same in the first half of 2020 as in 2019.

Risk Classification

Life insurers classify people as standard risks, substandard and preferred risks.

• For insureds under age 50, being a nonsmoker or a preferred insured, held down the odds of dying from any cause in the first half of 2020.
• For insureds over age 70, especially, being classified as a nonsmoker or a preferred risk, seemed to increase the impact of the pandemic on the odds of dying.
• For insureds in their 70s and their 90s who were classified as preferred risks, the odds of dying from any cause were more than 40% higher than in 2019.
• For insureds in their 80s who were classified as preferred risks, of the odds of dying from any cause were about 30% higher.

The individual life team called the poor results for the preferred risks surprising but did not speculate about the reasons for those results.

COVID-19 Geography

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the area around New York City hard in early 2020.

The individual life team found that about 33% of the COVID-19 claims recorded in the first half of 2020 were from the beneficiaries of insureds who died in the New York-New Jersey region.

"NY-NJ had a terrible April not experienced anywhere else in the country," the individual life team wrote.

The individual life team said the nature of their study might affect efforts to interpret the mortality data.

There are large differences between the insureds in different regions of the country, and some of the patterns emerging from the data may reflect where the 27 participating life insurers sold their business, rather than the characteristics of the entire population of people with individual life insurance, the individual life team said.

(Chart: CDC)