BUSINESS NEWS - The Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa) – which represents the majority of the country’s asset managers, collective investment scheme management companies, linked investment service providers, multi-managers and life insurance companies – says life insurers reported a huge increase in death claims when Covid-19 infections and deaths surged during May to September 2021.
Life insurers reported a 53% surge in death claims during the six months to end September which included the third wave of Covid-19 transmissions, says Hennie de Villiers, deputy chair of Asisa’s life and risk committee.
He presented statistics during a presentation showing that life insurers received more than half a million death claims – at 565 522, closer to 600 000 – between April and September 2021. During the same period in 2019, life insurers received 369 892 death claims.
Thus, insurers reported nearly 200 000 more deaths than normal (if one takes the 2019 number as ‘normal’).
De Villiers says not every death for which claims were submitted would have been caused by Covid-19, nor would the extra 200 000 deaths.
“There is no doubt that the pandemic has been responsible for many of the 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,” he says.
Asisa’s statistics show the same thing as the weekly mortality figures published by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
SAMRC figures have shown that the Covid-19 pandemic caused more deaths, directly and indirectly, than the official death statistics claim.
