INSURANCE claims made by Filipinos for Covid-19 shrank by 80 percent as cases declined, according to the Insurance Commission (IC).
In a statement, the IC said Covid-19 claims declined to P1.53 billion in the second half of 2022 from P7.65 billion in the same period in 2021.
Covid-related claim payouts made by life insurance companies amounted to P987 million, while health maintenance organizations (HMOs) paid out P483 million in Covid-related claims for the second half of 2022.
“Insurance companies and HMOs paid a total of 137,478 claims during the second half of 2022. This is a sharp decline from the number of claims paid during the same period in 2021, which totaled 359,622,” IC said.
The number of claims paid during the second half of 2022 matched the decline in the number of Covid-19 cases during the said period.
Data from the Department of Health (DOH) indicated that the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in 2022’s second semester is only 287,229.
IC noted this was a sharp decline from the recorded number of Covid-19 cases in the second half of 2021, which was 1.11 million.
The data showed Covid-related claim payouts made by life insurance companies amounted to P987 million, while HMOs paid out P483 million in Covid-related claims for the second half of 2022.
IC said mutual benefit associations (MBAs) and non-life insurers paid out a total of P33 million in Covid-related claims for the said period.
A total of 124 respondent companies participated in the Commission’s survey on Covid-19-related claims in the second half of 2022.
In particular, 28 out of 32 licensed life insurers, 43 out of 54 non-life insurers, 29 out of 33 MBAs, and 24 out of 29 HMOs, participated in the survey.
The IC said its semestral surveys covered regulated entities regarding their Covid-related claims payouts since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Based on the Commission’s surveys, the insurance industry has paid out P22.36 billion in Covid-related claims from 2020 to 2022.
Based on the Insurance Commission’s surveys, Covid-related claims paid amounted to P3.89 billion in 2020; P12.82 billion in 2021; and P5.65 billion in 2022.