Impact of COVID-19 on the insurance industry
Covid19 has caused a great deal of confusion in insurance companies. In particular, insurance brokers are at risk of price fluctuations and epidemics have been considered a low-risk event. However, the economic impact of a disaster can serve as a catalyst for positive change in the industry. This article highlights the impact of covid19 on the insurance industry.

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Introduction

The insurance industry has historically been associated with economic growth. Not surprisingly, the COVID 19 disaster has had a profound effect on insurance brokers around the world. As the industry adopts new labor laws and changes principles in digital measures, some of the direct effects of reduced profits and growth will reduce costs while insurers operate more efficiently. At the same time, epidemics have caused changes in consumer preferences, reintroducing important economic sectors and negatively affected the insurance sector for all sizes. Continue reading to understand the nuances of COVID19 and insurance, and how businesses deal with these challenges.

The direct impact of covid-19 on the insurance industry

The epidemic has increased the demand for insurance brokers in some sectors, but the new digital economy after COVID-19 presents promising growth opportunities. Some areas where COVID19 has a direct impact on the insurance industry are:

  • Tourism, Health, Hospitality: The impact of epidemics on travel and hospitality is clear, but new steps are being taken to promote and strengthen these services. industry. The sub-sector of health insurance expects increased demand and the rate of writing down is constantly increasing. Some companies add new boxes to insure their health insurance, while others lower the age limit for purchases.
  • Emergency installation: Epidemic cancel or global event delayed. Although the sector is a small part of the industry, the losses in this sector are huge, with some reported hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
  • Cyber ​​Security: The Internet insurance industry is growing exponentially as the digital world economy grows in size and breadth in the epidemic. However, rising risks and threats have a negative impact on the level of losses in the sector.
  • Commercial Debt: The disruption of the COVID19-related supply chain is expected to increase bad credit and fraudulent loans. This result has not yet been seen, but the result may be visible after meeting those policy limits.
  • Retirement Pensions: The Australian Health Regulatory Authority has notified pension managers to expedite applications for early access to pension funds. This has led the management of these organizations to review and evaluate their reserves.
    • The health insurance industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% between 2019 and 2023. India’s inflation rate was set at 4.2% in FY2009, life insurance rate was 3.2%, and non-life insurance rate was 1.0%. In terms of insurance congestion, India’s total congestion was $ 78 by FY2009.
    • The total number of first-year premiums created by health insurance companies increased by 6.94% to 2,27,188 domestic jobs (US $ 29.54 billion) in the second year (as of January 2022).
    •  Between April 2021 and January 2022, the premiums for non-health insurance companies reached rupees. In January 2022, a portion of non-life insurance earned a premium total of Rupees 21,957.03 (US $ 2).
    • 85 rupees compared to 21389.70 rupees (US $ 2.77 billion) were recorded in January 2021.
    • The market share of private companies in the non-life insurance market increased from 48.03% in FY2008 to 49.31% in FY2009.

The impact of covid-19 on health insurance

  • Death and Long-Term: The immediate and explicit impact of this epidemic on insurance brokers was the personal suffering of life insurance and pensions. The epidemic has caused a significant number of premature deaths and increased mortality obligations for many life insurance products. However, keep in mind that the level of impact depends largely on the age profile of the policy owner and location. It should also be noted that health insurers often offer long-term life risk protection with age-related health products. Therefore, the risk of long life expectancy of an already invalid pension for epidemic-related death may be reduced. These risks of death and longevity are partially remedied by acting as a natural fence. Therefore, a complete change in the liability for death-related deaths varies widely among life insurance brokers, depending on the product mix ratio created by health insurance brokers.
  • Regulations: Various regulatory laws, such as the European Union’s Solvency II Directive, require insurers to meet payment requirements in accordance with their risk profile. Therefore, it is now possible to contact management, especially with speculation about payment requirements.
  • Financial implications: Financial markets have undergone major changes and volatility since markets began to react violently in February and March this year. Changes in financial markets can have a variety of effects, as health insurers carry essential assets to protect their debts. For example, the stock market has recovered significantly from a sharp decline earlier this year but future volatility and declining equity values ​​continue to pose a significant threat to solvency rates. In addition, lower interest rates affect health insurers. Life insurance companies are very sensitive to long-term interest rates. The total impact on the balance sheet depends on the duration of the asset and the liability period. Life insurance sellers often have long-term debt rather than assets available on the market. Therefore, the overall effect of long-term rate reduction on the balance sheet should be negative.

How does Covid19 affect health and non-health insurance?

Health insurers take the risk of illness, so an increase in Covid19-related hospitalization and treatment will lead to additional charges for health advertisers. I was worried it would happen. AM Best comments suggest that Covid 19 have less impact on health insurance retailers as expected (AM Best, 2020). They attribute this to the fact that most people who are diagnosed are able to isolate themselves at home rather than be hospitalized. In addition, the expected impact of Covid19 claims was resolved by a decrease in non-Covid19 claims.

Non-life insurance is also affected by epidemics in many ways. For example, travel is severely disrupted, affecting tourism policy. Vehicle claims were also affected as various roadblocks reduced road users in an unprecedented way and significantly reduced traffic complaints from accidents. Claims of theft have also decreased because both the car and the car owner are at home.

Conclusion

The nature of the epidemic has had a devastating effect on almost the entire industrial sector, but only the insurance industry has improved significantly. The epidemic has taught people the importance of ensuring everything.

CategoryMiscellaneous

CA Vimal Kumar Sharma has expertise is in the field of Accounting, Budgeting, Management Reporting, Statutory Reporting, Regulatory Compliance, Working Capital Management, Taxation, Statutory and Tax Audit and posses experience of almost 5 years.

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