info@theodorewillis.com
Jan. 5, 2022
Of Actuaries and Cremation
Purdue University describes an actuary as “a business professional who analyzes the financial consequences of risk. Actuaries use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs. Actuaries may work for insurance companies, consulting firms, government, employee benefits departments of large corporations, hospitals, banks and investment firms, or, more generally, in businesses that need to manage financial risk” (LINK),
As morbid as this may seem, my focus is on the work of actuaries involved in compiling rates of mortality because the trends they observe chart the course of the funerary industry. As a designer of cremation furnaces and systems, I fill a need in that industry and depend on actuaries to divine future business opportunities
So when the actuaries working for American insurance companies report an increase in mortality for a large segment of the population, I am interested. Yet today when they are reporting an increase of forty (40%) percent, I am flabbergasted.
On this past December 30, 2021, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana Hospital Association held a press conference (virtually of course) during which Mr. Scott Davison, CEO of OneAmerica revealed some startling statistics for the year 2021. OneAmerica has been headquartered in Indianapolis since 1877 and handles $100 Billion dollars worth of investments, with insurance being their smallest component.
Mr. Davison says the company is “...seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica...The data is consistent across every player in that business.”
He continued that the increase in deaths represents “huge, huge numbers,” and that’s it’s not elderly people who are dying, but “...primarily working-age people 18 to 64...What we saw just in third quarter, we’re seeing it continue into fourth quarter, is that death rates are up 40% over what they were pre-pandemic
Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, a three-sigma or a one-in-200-year catastrophe would be 10% increase over pre-pandemic, so 40% is just unheard of.”
Davison also said the company is seeing an increase in disability claims; at first it was short-term disability claims, but now the increase is in long-term disability claims. For OneAmerica, the currently estimated impact of this increase in disability and death is $100 Million dollars which is a large portion of their smallest business arm (LINK),
Just the day before Mr. Davison spoke, a news conference was held with Dr. Lindsay Weaver, Indiana’s chief medical officer and Gov. Eric Holcomb to discuss hospitalizations. Dr. Weaver stated that “...the number of hospitalizations in the state is now higher than before the COVID-19 vaccine was introduced a year ago, and in fact is higher than it’s been in the past five years...Just 8.9% of ICU beds are available at hospitals in the state, a low for the year, and lower than at any time during the pandemic. But the majority of ICU beds are not taken up by COVID-19 patients – just 37% are, while 54% of the ICU beds are being occupied by people with other illnesses or conditions.”
Indiana is rather open in their announcement of this increase in non-covid hospitalizations, disability and death; no other government, financial or medical body announce this publicly. A lack of information makes further research difficult however there are voices in the medical industry offering some clues;
“It has never been this busy, and none of it is Covid-19,” Dana says. “We don’t normally see this amount of strokes, aneurysms and heart attacks all happening at once. … Normally we’ll see six to ten aortic dissections a year. We’ve seen six in the last month. It’s crazy. Those have very high rates of mortality.”
Dana (Last Name Withheld), R.N. ICU, Ventura County, Ca
“We’ve been having a lot of younger people come in...We’re seeing a lot of strokes, a lot of heart attacks....One 38-year-old-woman came in with occlusions (blockages of blood flow) in her brain. They [doctors] were searching for everything under the sun and documenting this in the chart, but nowhere do you see if she was vaccinated or not...One thing the vaccine causes is thrombosis, clotting.
Here you have a 38-year-old woman who was double-vaccinated and she’s having strokes they can’t explain. None of the doctors relates it to the vaccine.
Another woman, age 63, came in the day she took the Moderna Covid shot. With no previous cardiac history, she suffered a heart attack. Tests revealed her coronary arteries were clean. One doctor actually questioned the vaccine, but they didn’t mention it in the chart because you can’t prove it
Everyone wants to downplay it — ’It’s rare, it’s rare...Doctors don’t want to question it. We have these mass vaccinations happening and we’re seeing myocarditis more frequently and nobody wants to raise the red flag. When we discuss the case, they don’t even discuss it. They don’t mention it. They act like they don’t have a reason, that it’s spontaneous.”
Sam (Last Name Withheld), Critical Care Nurse, ICU, Ventura County, Ca
So it would appear that business in my industry is picking up and will continue to do so for some time. I want to thank the actuaries of the world for their hard work and diligence in compiling this data. I also want to thank all of those who are responsible for this increase in business; no names but, you know who you are ;)