Metabolic health emerges as new opportunity for life insurers

DALLAS -- Life insurers could reduce claims costs, expand their customer base and improve policyholder health by investing in programs that address metabolic health, a panel agreed during the 2026 LIMRA Annual Conference.

The opportunity extends beyond traditional risk assessment and underwriting to helping people improve their health through nutrition, lifestyle changes and, when appropriate, medication, panelists said during a unique session on metabolic health and insurance.

Titled “Metabolic Health as a Business Strategy: From GLP-1s to Portfolio Value,” the session was led by Kimberly Poulopoulos, head of life and health mortality innovation at Swiss Re.

John Schoonbee, chief medical officer at Swiss Re, said rising rates of obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance are contributing to chronic disease, higher health care costs and worsening mortality trends.

“One of the things we've noticed over the last number of decades is this huge increase in obesity,” Schoonbee said.

Metabolic health refers to how effectively the body regulates processes such as blood sugar and insulin. Insulin resistance, in which the body's cells respond less effectively to insulin, is associated with conditions including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and fatty liver disease.

A bigger role envisioned

Insurers have traditionally focused on measuring and pricing risk but could take a more active role in reducing it, Schoonbee said.

“We know we can reduce weight. We can reduce diabetes. We can reduce cardiovascular risk with drugs,” he added. “We know GLP-1s can do this.”

The discussion also featured Dr. Frank Dumont, executive medical director at Virta Health, and Josh Stirling, founder and president of the nonprofit Insurance Collaboration to Save Lives.

Insurers have an opportunity to move beyond financing the consequences of poor health and toward helping policyholders avoid some of those consequences, Sterling said.

That shift could create value through lower claims costs, new sales opportunities and improved outcomes for existing policyholders, he said.

“There's a huge there's a huge potential for cost savings,” Stirling said.

Consumers who struggle to qualify for traditional life insurance products because of health conditions are one potential market for growth.

Stirling estimated that a substantial share of the market could benefit from programs designed to improve metabolic health. Insurers could potentially pair coverage with health improvement programs, helping customers manage risk while gaining access to insurance protection.

“There's dozens of ways to tackle this problem and turn it into an opportunity for companies,” Stirling said.

Stirling cited a Swiss Re pilot program in the United Kingdom that focused on helping people receiving disability benefits improve their health. That effort produced strong results, including faster returns to work.

Nutrition and lifestyle changes

Dumont spent more than 20 years in primary care before joining Virta Health. He said nutrition-focused interventions can help people improve metabolic health and reduce their reliance on medication.

Virta uses a remote-care model that combines medical oversight, health coaching and ongoing biomarker monitoring to help patients make sustainable dietary changes.

Dumont showed photos of a patient who weighed about 550 pounds and had multiple metabolic conditions. His doctor had told the man that he was “likely to die within months” unless he made dramatic changes to his health, he added.

“He was in a very bad place, and things were not well controlled, in spite of all the meds he was on,” Dumont said. “He could hardly walk across the room.”

After changing his nutrition, the patient lost weight, improved his health and eventually ran a 5-kilometer race, he said.

Successful interventions like this must account for patients' food preferences, budgets and daily routines rather than rely on restrictive diets that are difficult to maintain, Dumont explained.

Virta's approach focuses on reducing insulin levels through dietary changes, with the goal of improving blood sugar control and other measures of metabolic health.

Dumont said clinical and observational data from the company's programs show improvements in diabetes control, weight and medication use. He also cited research suggesting that some patients who make sustained lifestyle changes can discontinue GLP-1 medications without regaining the weight they lost.

GLP-1 drugs, which include medications used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity, can produce significant weight loss and other health benefits. But Dumont said patients often stop taking them because of cost, side effects or coverage limitations.

Medication can be an important part of treatment but should be combined with nutrition and other lifestyle changes when appropriate, he added.

Insurers weigh the business case

Panelists said insurers should consider whether improving metabolic health could produce measurable financial benefits, particularly among people with the highest health risks and costs.

Employers and insurers could see savings if programs reduce hospitalizations, physician visits and other medical expenses, Stirling noted.

He also cautioned that insurers need to demonstrate that the programs work before incorporating them into customer-facing products. One starting point is to offer programs to employees and evaluate the results before expanding them to policyholders, he added.

“The easiest way where I could see us actually achieving our vision of saving a million lives through the life insurance industry is basically trying to deploy things like this because there's so many people out there who are affected,” Stirling said.

© Entire contents copyright 2026 by InsuranceNewsNet.com Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted without the expressed written consent from InsuranceNewsNet.com.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at john.hilton@innfeedback.com. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.