Chronic health crisis doubles million-dollar medical claims, report says Image By HPN Staff Poor health habits across the United States are driving up diagnosis rates for circulatory disease and cancer, causing a jump in medical treatments that cost more than $1 million per patient, according to a new report prepared for U.S. employers and labor unions. The frequency of claims exceeding $1 million per patient has doubled since 2020, the same year that the COVID-19 pandemic strained health systems close to their breaking points. “An increasing dependence on expensive medications, excessive use of antibiotics and the prevalent intake of processed foods has led to a rise in obesity and chronic disease rates, significantly exacerbating public health threats in the U.S.,” warned the 2025 Accident & Health Market Report from QBE Insurance. “The frequency of circulatory claims has risen almost 60% post-COVID and cancer cases continue to be the predominant excess loss claim across all deductible levels, increasing by 15% in 2024 for all effective groups in QBE’s portfolio,” the report said. Why it matters Rising health care costs have been a persistent social, economic and political challenge in the U.S. for decades. While much of the political debate on this subject has focused on the way health care services are financed through private insurance and taxpayer-funded plans like Medicare and Medicaid, federal policymakers are now showing more interest in the root causes of illness and how to prevent them. For example, in February 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on health policy which called for “fresh thinking on nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety.” Separately, the health insurance industry is putting a greater focus on preventative screenings for heart disease, cancer and other illnesses. The findings of the QBE report may strengthen the economic and political case for attacking the root cause of chronic illness and investing in other preventative strategies. More detail The QBE report cites an “alarming rise” in the number of claims for medical claims exceeding $1 million. In 2020, there was an average of one claim exceeding $1 million per 10,000 employees. By 2024, this rate had jumped to 2 claims per 10,000 employees. In addition to heart disease and cancer, the QBE report also explored other issues. “QBE has observed a growing trend in the frequency of claims for preterm births with associated congenital anomalies, particularly at the $1 million and $2 million deductible levels, indicating the continuously escalating magnitude of these types of claims,” the report found. The report cited smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and unhealthy weight as some of the drivers of this trend. “Addressing chronic health conditions and risk factors is crucial to reducing the risks of preterm birth,” the report concluded. Additional context QBE is a global insurance company that sells “stoploss” insurance coverage to employers and labor unions that administer their own health plans on behalf of their workers. These so-called “self-funded” health plans cover approximately 65% of American workers and their families, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). “Self-funding is common among larger firms because they can spread the risk of costly claims over a large number of workers and dependents,” KFF says. “Some employers which sponsor self-funded plans purchase stop-loss coverage to limit their liabilities.”
