Get a first-person view of the unfolding opioid epidemic from a physician who lived it. Dr. Elyssa Del Valle recounts her experiences attempting to treat pain, while preventing addiction, and draws lessons for insurers.
In recent years, a substance known as kratom has grown in popularity in the U.S. and the U.K. as it is easy to purchase online and advertised as a ‘legal high.’ RGA's Hilary Henly explores the consumption, regulation, and risk of this increasingly popular plant-based psychoactive substance.
Slides from this presentation, given at the 2018 ACSW Spring Meeting, have been posted at the Actuaries’ Club of the Southwest website.
Currently heroin, cocaine, marijuana, prescription medications — specifically prescription opioids — and alcohol are recognized as the chief forms of substance abuse in our society. In this white paper, we continue our series examining the opioid epidemic and its significance for the life insurance industry.
We recently completed a survey of US and Canadian life insurers asking about underwriting practices and perceptions related to assessing tobacco/nicotine, alcohol and drug use. Over 100 carriers participated.
Population data show that drug-related mortality rates have more than doubled since the beginning of the century. This statistic is troubling enough as it is, but it hides the fact that almost all the increase is due to opioids, which account for just over half of the deaths.
This paper seeks to understand the unique set of circumstances that led to the dramatic rise in opioid prescriptions over the last few decades, and provide a brief overview of the resultant morbidity and mortality for the insured population.
In an earlier blog I outlined the health threat and addiction potential from non-prescription use of opioid painkillers. However, the problems do not stop with this class of drug. Sedative and hypnotic drugs also pose significant risk of physical and psychological dependence.
http://www.genre.com/knowledge/blog/the-risk-of-addiction-with-sedative-...