BL Premium reports that statistics on mortality claims from the insurance industry show that more than a million policyholders died in the most recent one-year measurement period, which the sector said was “no doubt” linked to Covid-19.
Data from the Association for Savings and Investment SA (Asisa) shows that 1,023,083 policyholders died between April 1 2020 and March 31 2021 — a 43% increase on the 713,350 deaths recorded over the corresponding period in the previous year. The statistics, which were released by Asisa on Tuesday, reflect claims made against individual life, group life policies offered by employers, credit life and funeral policies. Total claims payouts across the various insurance lines for the period totalled R47.58bn. “These are staggering numbers and there is no doubt that Covid-19 has caused many of these additional deaths, whether directly as a result of a person contracting the virus or because people were reluctant to seek medical attention for other serious conditions,” said Hennie de Villiers of the Asisa life and risk board committee. He noted that the hard lockdown conditions, curfews and alcohol bans would have reduced violent and accidental deaths. Meanwhile, the SA Medical Research Council estimates that there have been more than 240,000 excess deaths since the start of the pandemic. Using SA’s recorded Covid-19 case fatalities with the excess death data, which measures mortality numbers in relation to the historic average, Discovery estimates that 70% to 80% of the population may have contracted the virus. Life expectancy at birth for SA males dropped from 62.4 in 2020 to 59.3 in 2021, while for females life expectancy fell to 64.6 years, from 68.4 in 2020.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Garth Theunissen at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
- Read too, Momentum pays out R1.4bn for Covid-related death claims, at Business Report
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