Norwich bulletin., 1920-07-06
MANSFIELD ISSUES ANNUAL
 REPORT ON INSURANCE

l
 Insurance Commissioner Burton Mans field of Connecticut has issued the fifty fftli annual report Of his department. It contains a statement Of the business done by life, accident. casualty and surety companies in the state during, the year 1919. Commissioner Mansfield discusses the effect of influenza and kindred dis eases on the claims paid by companies Out of thirty-one. life companies only three had increased their insurance rates The commissioner gives the result of his observation of the effect of influenza upon mortality and sickness from Octo- Der 1, 1918. to March 31 -1919 The death claims for Ahat period amounted to s252, 163,901, ana the amount of such claims for that period amounted to s252,- 163,901, and the amount of such claims due to influenza la grip at.l s,n,iipenia was S120,443.469. representing 47.8 per cent. of the total claims. Tt would thus
 appear reads the report, that so far as our statistics go we may reasonably as sume that the mortality rate was almost double that of the normal during the pe- riod under consideration. This fact is strikingly illustrated in the case of the experience of fraternal societies. It appeared that health and accident companies suffered an increase in the rate of sickness approximately as great
 
 experienced by the life companies and fraternal societies.
 | Fraternal insurance has received it's share of the amount of new bu 4 ass ac- cording to the report The increase for the first six months of 1919 over the cor l responding 1918 period amounts to S4 per cent. Unlike the life companies there
 was considerable falling off in new 1 business for 1917, but only slight de crease in 1918. Contrary to the case of the life companies not all fraternal so- l cieties shared in the increase. Of the | twenty-five societies whose experience is included above, ten showed 8 decrease for 1919 as compared with 1918. As to the probable effect of influenza on the increase in new. business Com ] missioner Mansfield says:
 As to what effect the influenza epi- demic has had upon the increase in new business, I have concluded that it is something we can only make a guess at Personally l am of the opinion that the three important. factors contributing to the 1919 increase are influenza, govern
 ment insurance for sailors and soldiers and general prosperity. Of these three factrs l believe that general prosperity Is in the lead with influenza and gov ernment insurance running a close sec ond. Our industrial population has en- Joyed an unprecedented prosperity and has been spending money freely. Insur- ance officials with whom I have discuss ed the subject advise me that their agen- cy forces have. been diverting fair share of this money. to investment in life insurance. There has been a fertile field opened up among people who heretofore have carried little. or no insurance what ever, but who now have the means of carrying substantial amounts. This naturally raises the question of how
 much of the new insurance will remain in force. but such a problem is beyond the scope of this paper
 Tt takes time,'' continues Commits sioner Mansfield. "to educate the public in life insurance matters, unless we have striking examples to put forward such as the influenza epidemic or the government insurance plan If the pres- ent scale of prices should continue no doubt in time life insurance would ad- just itself to the 5G-cent dollar We can not say that the workman who has be- come comparatively prosperous and who previously carried $500 industrial poi
 icy but has graduated into the Sloe0 or dinary class, has doubl.d his insurance I because of the slrinkage in the purchas- ing power of the dollar. He has in creased his insurance merely because he has had plenty of money to spend, The man to whom the argument of a 50 cent dollar is most likely to make strong appeal is the salaried man carry ing from $10eoe to 50.e6- -A ;slrance He no doubt appreciates the argument
 but at the same. time his living costs have mounted While his salary costs have
 mounted while his salary has remained nearly stationary, and accordingly he is
 not in position to double his insur- ance."
 In regard to increases in premium
 rates a point to be kept in mind is that
 the companies doing business in Connec- | ticut, are, almost without exception, long established institutions possessing sub srantial surplusesisays Nr Mans:iell l. The increae in health premium rates was in nearly all cases attributed to the effect of influenza, although several company officials pointed out that the need for
 increased rates had been felt for some time.