Insurers’ COVID-19 claims payouts hit P16.7B — Insurance Commission

MANILA, Philippines — The domestic insurance industry has disbursed a total of P16.7 billion in COVID-19-related claims since the pandemic started in March 2020 up to end-2021.

This meant that life and non-life insurers, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), as well as mutual benefit associations (MBAs) had sustained their commitment to address the needs of their clients amid the prolonged pandemic, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said in a statement on Monday.

That insurance players paid these claims also reflected “sustained resilience of our regulated entities against the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Funa added.

Citing the results of the IC latest survey among its regulated sectors, Funa said that claims paid out in relation to COVID-19 more than tripled to P12.8 billion in 2021 from P3.9 billion in 2020.

From March 2020 to December 2021, the life insurance sector disbursed the most claims, amounting to P9.1 billion or over half of the industry-wide total. HMOs paid P6.5 billion; MBAs, P833 million; and non-life companies, P382 million.

Funa said claim payouts last year were directly proportional whenever there had been surges in COVID-19 infections.

“The figures as regards pandemic-related claims paid show an upward trend for the months of January to May, dipping slightly in June, thereafter increasing again until reaching the peak in September, and subsequently exhibiting a downward trend for the months of October until December,” Funa said.

“During the peak month of September, it was shown that when the new COVID-19 cases breached the 500,000-mark for said month, the amount of COVID-19-related claims paid by life and non-life insurers, HMOs, and MBAs increased which approximated to more than P1.4 billion,” Funa added, referring to the surge caused by the Delta variant.

Funa said that the bulk amounting to P6.9 billion in COVID-19-related claims in 2021 were for death benefits. In-patient benefit payouts reached P3.4 billion, while out-patient amounted to P1.9 billion.

But in terms of the number of claims lodged by clients last year, the most number was for out-patient benefits, with 413,254 out of the 555,708 industry total. Claims for other benefits such as emergency care and financial assistance reached 54,060, on top of 37,883 in-patient claims, Funa said.

IC data showed that while the HMO sector settled the bulk of claims in 2020 with P1.9 billion or nearly half of that year’s total, life insurance firms had the largest combined payouts in 2021 with P7.6 billion or nearly three-fifths of last year’s total.

HMOs claim payouts nonetheless jumped to P4.5 billion last year amid the prolonged fight against COVID-19.