I recently had the opportunity to testify before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee on a topic that is incredibly timely and relevant both to business leaders and to all Americans: improving long-term health outcomes and ultimately reducing costs in our healthcare system. So why did lawmakers want to hear from the CEO of a life insurance company? Quite simply, there is a role for each of us in helping more Americans live longer, healthier, better lives.
While life expectancy is growing, the average American can expect to spend nearly 12 years in poor health, and lifestyle diseases including heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes are now leading causes of death, driving unprecedented expense and tremendous strain on individuals and their families. In 2024, 90% of the nation’s $4.9 trillion in annual healthcare spending was attributable to chronic and mental health conditions, and projections suggest that by 2030, more than 80 million Americans will live with three or more chronic diseases. Furthermore, when Americans don’t take part in recommended preventative care, it costs the U.S. an estimated $55 billion each year — underscoring the importance of decisive action.
The trends are concerning, to say the least, and the compounding impact on our communities and our economy is immense. But there are rays of hope. Advances in personal health technology, prevention strategies, and early detection and screening methodologies offer promising opportunities to intervene earlier and improve long-term outcomes. With widespread adoption of these new tools and cross-sector collaboration to make them more accessible we can change the course.
In the private sector, specifically from where I sit in the life insurance industry, it is incumbent that we create more holistic solutions with benefits that reach beyond our business. In our model, the longer our customers live, the longer we benefit financially. And when our customers live both longer and healthier lives, it’s better for them and for their families, it’s better for society because they are more productive members of the economy and less of a strain on the healthcare system.
In 2015, we launched John Hancock Vitality, combining traditional life insurance with tools, resources, incentives and rewards to help our customers take small, everyday steps towards longer, healthier, better lives. Customers earn points for their activities — from a good night’s sleep and daily exercise, to meditation, regular physicals, and taking part in cancer screenings. Those points add up to rewards, including savings on their life insurance premiums, discounts on fresh produce, free Amazon Prime memberships, hotel savings, and free or discounted wearables. After more than a decade, the results of this incentivized model speak for themselves. Our customers:
- Engage with the program 20-30 times per month. Customer interactions were just 1-2x per year with traditional life insurance policies without Vitality;
- Take twice as many steps as the average American;
- And 80% of our most active customers have reported improved health outcomes, including 52% with high blood pressure bringing readings within a healthy range; 45% reducing their body mass index; and 63% bringing their cholesterol within a healthy range.
We continuously grow the program to include access to the latest advances in prevention and early detection tools so that our customers can make the most informed decisions about their health. Most recently, this has included access to GRAIL’s Galleri® multi-cancer early detection test. Through these offerings, some of our customers have detected cancer and other conditions much earlier than they otherwise would have. To protect their privacy, we never know which customers opt to take these tests, but some have reached out to us to share how our offerings likely saved their life.
We have seen firsthand that an incentive-based model can drive meaningful behavior change and support better health outcomes over time. But for impact on a wider scale, more businesses and industries need to adopt models that benefit their business, their customers, and beyond. If we don’t collectively take action across both private and public sectors, the costs and the human toll will be devastating. And while the situation can seem overwhelming, if we each focus on how and where we can contribute and leverage the inroads already in progress, we can begin to reverse course, and together we can help more Americans live longer, healthier, better lives.
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