Insurance Commission: COVID-19 insurance claims amounted to P2.93 billion in Q1 2022

Insurance claims related to COVID-19 amounted to P2.93 billion from January to April 2022, the Insurance Commission (IC) said Friday in a report to the Department of Finance (DOF).

Of the figures, 61 percent or P1.79 billion were from life insurance benefits, 32 percent or P948 million were from the health maintenance organization (HMO) sector, five percent or P145 million came from the non-life insurance payouts, while two percent or P49.4 million were from mutual benefit associations (MBAs).

“These claims were for death, hospitalization, outpatient, and other benefits,” said IC Commissioner Dennis Funa in his report during a recent DOF Executive Committee meeting.

Funa added that total COVID-19 insurance claims from 2020 until the first quarter of 2022 amounted to P19.64 billion.

More than half of the payments or around P10.84 billion came from the life insurance industry, 37 percent or P7.39 billion from HMOs, five percent or P882 million from MBAs, while non-life policies made up three percent or P527 million.

The IC further said the biggest COVID-19 insurance claims were made in 2021 with 65 percent or P12.82 billion of the total payouts. It was followed by March to December 2020 with 20 percent or P3.89 billion and the first quarter of 2022 with 15 percent.

While the 2020 and 2021 data appeared to be staggering amounts, it accounted for only 10 percent of the total benefit payments during these years, said Funa.

COVID-related claims made up only three percent of payouts in 2020, and seven percent in 2021, he added.

For 2020, payouts for other benefit claims amounted to P120.76 billion, or 97 percent of the total payouts. Non-COVID-19 claims in 2021, meanwhile, totaled 93 percent of the payouts or P159.68 billion. — DVM,GMA News