The Surging Cost of Insurance

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-12-06/the-surging-cost-of-insurance-wall-street-week-video

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Description.

Insurance prices have surged across America in the past two years, with homeowner’s insurance climbing 21%, while CPI rose just 5%. (Source: Bloomberg)

Jerry Theodorou of R Street Institute is interviewed about Florida homeowners insurance.

Author(s): Wall St. Week

Publication Date: 6 Dec 2024

Publication Site: Bloomberg TV

From a Simple Test to Open Heart Surgery: How a Cardiac Screening Saved George’s Life

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.chestercountyhospital.org/news/health-eliving-blog/2020/february/how-cardiac-screening-saved-georges-life

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Excerpt:

George, who is 51 years old, has been a police officer in Chester County for 31 years. He has lived a life of action — which comes with some feelings of invincibility. “As a police officer, there are times we think we are indestructible,” he explains.

Because of his active lifestyle — and no signs of heart problems whatsoever — heart disease was the furthest thing from George’s mind. “I walked anywhere from 6 to 8 hours a day. I was never winded, never tired, and I had no numbness. All of those telltale signs of heart disease — I never got any of them,” George explains.

Through a collaboration between Chester County Hospital and local police departments, George was offered a free cardiac risk screening for first responders. Despite zero signs of heart disease, he figured he might as well take advantage. Little did he know, he would end up having open-heart surgery just a few months later.

Publication Date: 10 Feb 2020

Publication Site: Chester County Hospital, Penn Medicine blog

Bad Spreadsheet Cases: Lawsuit Tracker

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.datarails.com/research/spreadsheets-in-court/

Description:

Read the unreported cases of how Excel cases have been brought to court. This report finds that spreadsheet disputes have been central to 12 lawsuits brought in the US and UK over the past two years leading to $210 million in company losses. have been at the center of major procurement battles in court. The study has been carried out in consultation with Dr Simon Thorne, Senior Lecturer in Computing and Information Systems, Cardiff School of Technologies and programme chair of the European Spreadsheets Risks Interest Group (EuSpRIG).

Author(s): datarails

Publication Date: retrieved 7 Dec 2024

Publication Site: datarails

Rise Of The Insurance Apocalypse

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.levernews.com/rise-of-the-insurance-apocalypse/

Excerpt:

Most insurance companies at that time assessed hurricane exposure in their portfolios by simply multiplying customer premiums by a rough factor of supposed risk, rather than tracking actual property replacement costs. “They were just very crude formulas,” she said. 

So in 1987, Clark had started her own company, Applied Insurance Research, or AIR, to develop software that better estimated the potential losses from catastrophic events. Unlike the rest of the industry, she used granular data and sophisticated analyses, an approach now called catastrophe modeling. Her first computer model estimated that a Category 5 hurricane hitting Dade County could cause losses almost 10 times more than previously believed. She warned her customers about the risk in Florida, but until Hurricane Andrew, no one listened. 

Author(s): Lois Parshley

Publication Date: 23 Sept 2024

Publication Site: The Lever

The Latest Research on Why So Many Young Adults Are Getting Cancer

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.mskcc.org/news/why-is-cancer-rising-among-young-adults

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MSK breast oncologist Dr. Shari Goldfarb

Excerpt:

Men and women in the prime of their lives are increasingly being diagnosed with serious cancers, including colorectal, breast, prostate, uterine, stomach (gastric), pancreatic, and more. One forecast predicts cancer for this age group will increase by 30% globally from 2019 to 2030.

“This is serious and worrisome,” says Shari Goldfarb, MD, breast oncologist and Director of MSK’s Young Women With Breast Cancer program.   

“This is not a blip,” explains Andrea Cercek, MD, gastrointestinal oncologist and Co-Director of The Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancer. “The more data we gather, the clearer this becomes.”

MSK is a pioneer in caring for the specific needs of people facing what are often called early-onset cancers, who confront very different challenges than older adults. The coming surge in cases is a key reason MSK is building a new state-of-the-art hospital, called the MSK Pavilion.

Just as importantly, MSK experts are leading the investigation into why this is happening.

Author(s): Bill Piersol

Publication Date: 3 Sept 2024

Publication Site: Memorial Sloan Kettering News