Between 1991 and 2004, U.S. insurers paid over $24 billion on asbestos claims, according to the Insurance Information Institute in a report published in October 2008.
So far, companies having anything to do with asbestos have paid approximately $70 billion in claims and related costs, with more than 8,400 entities named as defendants, according to the RAND Institute for Civil Justice.
Hundreds of insurance companies have already been decimated by the cost of dealing with the claims filed so far. The ultimate number of claims could reach 1-to-3 million, with up to half of them being filed by people with little or no physical impairment. The total cost of this unfolding disaster could reach $265 billion, according to analysts at Milliman.
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