Summer broker event 2019: A leap into the future for Aetna International, surrounded by 1000 years of history

It’s my pleasure to welcome you so thank you very much for taking the time to come today to what is a fabulous venue.

I joined the business three years ago and since then we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the size of our organisation. In fact, we’ve grown by just over 50% compared to where we were three years ago.

Today’s theme was really about holistic health and well being.

How are we seeing health care trends over the coming years? I think economically, global health care spending continues to grow dramatically, and it is expected to exceed 10 trillion dollars in the next three years.

The feedback we get from the brokers is what really makes us better. We think we know what we’re good at, but what we actually need to hear from them, is what’s important.

What I really like about the Aetna events, is the fact that they engage in areas where it’s all about improving health.

We’ve got four messages for you around Brexit. We’ve reinvigorated our Irish license. What that means for our members is that if you’ve got European business, we will be able to continue to provide our service across Europe.

OK, so, well-being from Aetna, for us this really means supporting members in being the best that they can or the best that they want to be. We see that as being about providing them with a holistic approach to health.

I think people understand that it’s not one size fits all health care and that they recognise the value of something that provides these personal insights.

I’m here to focus on the Aetna International Employee Assistance Programme. This programme is truly comprehensive; it supports both the member and their family.

I’m delighted to introduce you to the European launch of Aetna DNA. Personalised, predictive, participatory and preventative and those four P’s working together in combination are what makes populations healthy.

It’s important therefore that we provide the information in a way that’s going to hit home and make it easy. An infographic helps bring it all together. It tells you everything about the test for your nutrition, exercise, stress and sleep.

Fantastic day, bringing Aetna DNA to life.

A very enjoyable event today. The DNA piece is very interesting and where Aetna’s going with that.

What’s really important is for people to understand the way in which insurers are going to use this information, particularly at Aetna. For us it’s very much about not using any DNA information or reports to do any kind of underwriting or pricing.

I really enjoyed hearing from Andrew, the Olympian and about the impact of genetics on him.

I’m going to do a quick, live test with you all to see whether you’ve got a certain variant of a certain gene. Take a piece of litmus paper and see how it tastes.

Who finds that really quite bitter?

I was surprised at the test they did with the litmus paper.

To give you an example, that bitter taste is in grapefruit, Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

I’ve always thought I’ve had a high level of sense in terms of taste and seemingly I’ve got no taste at all compared to other people… it didn’t affect me at all!

I think we’re an innovator in the marketplace, we do things that other insurers don’t do, and this is really about making sure we get that innovation out there so people understand what we’re doing.