Pandemic insurance scheme should be created, suggests Axa boss

A pandemic insurance scheme should be created to cover health catastrophes, the chief executive of insurer Axa has suggested.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Thomas Buberl suggested there should be a pooling mechanism involving government and private insurers.

He said Axa was ready to take the initiative to work with the French government and elsewhere in Europe to create a pandemic insurance scheme.

Mr Buberl also said that more should be done in terms of co-ordination.

He said a lesson from the pandemic was that the world was not sufficiently prepared and did not co-ordinate enough.

Global warming in particular would mean the need for greater preparation and co-ordinated action at the global level, he said.