COVID-19-related insurance claims hit P 4.35B in H1

Claims related to COVID-19 paid out by the insurance industry during the first half of 2021 reached P4.35 billion, of which the bulk were disbursed by life insurers as well as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to their customers.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Insurance Commission (IC) said that of the first-half payouts, 47 percent or P2.06 billion were released by HMOs.

Life insurance firms paid P1.98 billion in claims, or 46 percent of the end-June industry total.

Nonlife insurers disbursed P119.1 million in claims, while mutual benefit associations paid P191.7 million, IC data showed.

The insurance sector received a total of 238,551 COVID-19-related claims from clients from January to June.

These first-half figures were generated from the IC’s latest survey where 117 industry players out of the total 147 licensed insurers participated.

In terms of type of claims, the biggest disbursements as of end-June were for death benefits (P1.67 billion); in-patient benefits (P1.47 billion); and out-patient claims (P876.6 million).

Per number of claims, out-patient benefits ranked No. 1 with 176,542; followed by other benefits such as emergency care and financial assistance (33,135); and in-patient benefits (16,475).

Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa noted that the monthly payouts recorded during each of the first six months showed that claims climbed whenever COVID-19 infections jumped.

“The claims paid increased drastically from February to April and dipped slightly in June. This reflects the reported spike of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines between March and May,” Funa said.

Cumulative COVID-19 related claims since the pandemic began early last year up to June this year totaled P8.25 billion, of which the largest share worth P2.89 billion were for death benefits.

—Ben O. de Vera INQ