Life insurance death claims plummet by 31.8% as Covid-19 mortality drops: Report

Life insurance companies have witnessed a 31.8 per cent fall in death claims paid out during this fiscal year, per a report in the Indian Express.

For the fiscal year ending in March 2023, the amount paid by insurers was Rs 41,457 crore, almost 20,000 crore less compared to Rs 60,821 crore in the previous year.

This is largely due to the sharp decline in deaths that the country has seen since Covid deaths fell after the effect of the virus waned. There were 5.33 lakh total deaths due to Covid since March 2020 as per Health Ministry data. However, insurance benefits availed remained minimal as insurance penetration remains abysmally low in the country.

The report quoted the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) annual data to show that insurers settled 2.36 crore health insurance claims this year and paid Rs 70,930 crore towards the settlement of health claims. The same number last year was Rs 69,498. The average amount paid per claim was Rs 30,087 in 2022-23 as against Rs 31,804 in the previous year

“The general insurers and stand-alone health insurers received a huge number of Covid treatment related claims which the industry handled quite efficiently and settled claims approximating to Rs 25,000 crore,” IRDAI said in its report.

The report said that of the Rs 41,457 crore that was paid out this year, Rs 23,423 crore was paid out by public sector companies — mainly Life Insurance corporation (LIC).

After a long respite, Covid cases have started rising across the country again since the beginning of December. As per the Health Ministry’s data on December 30 , around 4,000 active cases have been reported across the country.

Till December 29, a total of 162 cases of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 were detected in the country, with Kerala reporting the highest number of 83, followed by Gujarat at 34.