Leader's Edge, December 2025
Each category poses unique challenges for detection, prevention, and response. Together they threaten humans, animals, agriculture, and the environment.
COVID-19 demonstrated the devastation that can be inflicted by the rampant spread of disease—over 7 million deaths to date globally, 1.2 million of them in the United States, the most of any single nation.
From June 30, 2020, to June 30, 2024, encompassing the heart of the pandemic, U.S. health benefit claims rose by 56%, amounting to $182 billion in additional costs, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Offsetting factors, including lower use of non-COVID healthcare services, helped mitigate the overall financial impact on insurers.
COVID-19 was estimated to have caused $14 trillion of economic damage in the United States alone by the close of 2023, according to research at the time. The insurance industry incurred tens of billions in costs as well, including $20 billion or more for business interruption and event cancellation and up to $92 billion for workers compensation.
