A new article from Gen Re, the global reinsurer, puts hard data behind something life care planners see in case after case.
On October 14, 2026, Gen Re claims executives Martin Peiffer and Sven Steinhage published Bodily Injury Claims Between Inflation and Structural Disruption in the Gen Re Knowledge Center. It summarizes the Gen Re Claims Forum 2026, where liability claims heads from leading German insurers asked a simple question: are rising bodily injury claims just inflation, or has something more permanent changed?
Their answer points to structural change. The data come from the German market, but the lessons translate directly to how US attorneys, claims adjusters, and insurers should think about catastrophic injury exposure.
The Biggest Costs Arrive Over Decades, Not in Year One
Gen Re analyzed bodily injury claims above EUR 2 million in its reinsured portfolio. Roughly three quarters of total costs were tied to long-term items: care costs, loss of earnings, and additional needs. By contrast, one-time items such as pain and suffering damages and initial medical treatment played a comparatively minor role.
The authors illustrate the point with a 2024 claim that exceeded EUR 16 million in total, driven by annual care costs of around EUR 500,000. As they put it, in severe injury claims "the largest costs do not arise in the year of loss, but over decades."
That duration makes these claims volatile: even moderate yearly increases add up to a much larger total over a lifetime.
Care Is the Dominant, and Fastest-Moving, Cost Block
The article identifies care as the dominant cost block in severe bodily injury claims and lists several reasons it keeps climbing:
- Rising personnel costs and collective wage adjustments
- A shortage of skilled care workers
- Facility investment costs that nursing homes pass on to residents
One data point stands out. Citing Statista and data from the Verband der Ersatzkassen (vdek), the authors report that the average monthly nursing home co-payment for a stay of up to twelve months rose from EUR 2,871 in July 2024 to EUR 3,108 in July 2025, an increase of about 8 percent in a single year. They also note that these costs can vary considerably by region.
Medical Progress, Longer Care, and Broader Heads of Damage
Several other forces are pushing costs upward:
- Medical care. Costs rise not only directly, but also through longer treatment periods, insufficient capacity, and delayed rehabilitation.
- Medical progress. Injured people can receive long-term care, often for longer than in the past. That is good news for quality of life, but it increases treatment costs over a lifetime.
- Expanded heads of damage. Germany's Federal Participation Act (Bundesteilhabegesetz, or BTHG) has shifted the focus from care and compensation toward self-determination, inclusion, and equal participation. Assistance, mobility, accessible housing, and participation in work and social life are now often considered more comprehensively.
Care Costs Are Decoupling From General Inflation
Consumer price inflation has normalized after 2021 to 2023, yet the cost components of bodily injury claims continue to follow their own path. The reason: these claims consist mostly of services, especially care and health care, which have their own pricing mechanisms.
The practical upshot, in the authors' words, is that historical claims patterns are "increasingly becoming an unreliable benchmark for future development."
What Claims Leaders Expect Next
A live survey of the claims heads at the forum, which the authors stress is not representative, showed a consistent view. Costs are rising, they are expected to keep rising, and no one expects a decline. Care costs and medical treatment costs were named almost unanimously as the central drivers, while pain and suffering damages and court disputes played a subordinate role. Participants also cited demographics, medical progress, and the skilled worker shortage. The authors add that cost growth is not perfectly linear and that no single driver explains it.
Why This Matters for US Attorneys, Adjusters, and Insurers
The study is German, and its figures don't map one-to-one onto the US market, where health care financing, law, and labor markets differ. But the mechanics are familiar to anyone who works catastrophic injury cases here:
- Catastrophic injury value lives in the future. For plaintiffs and defense alike, the lifetime cost of care, not the initial hospitalization, usually shapes what a case is worth.
- Yesterday's claims don't predict tomorrow's. Reserving, settlement evaluation, and trial preparation all benefit from a current, individualized look at the services an injured person will actually need.
Gen Re's findings are a reminder that in severe injury claims, the future is where most of the cost lies. As care costs follow their own trajectory, careful, current projection of lifetime needs matters more than ever.
Source: Martin Peiffer and Sven Steinhage, "Bodily Injury Claims Between Inflation and Structural Disruption," Gen Re Knowledge Center, October 14, 2026. Figures are as reported by Gen Re and reflect the German market.
Disclaimer: This post is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client or professional relationship. Consult qualified counsel about your specific matter.