Africa-Press – South-Africa. Discovery Life paid our R11.8 billion in claims in 2021. Of that, R9.1 billion went to individual retail life customers, with Covid-19 deaths dominating the claim payouts.
Because of Covid-19, Discovery Life’s death claims in 2021 nearly tripled what the company recorded in the first year of the pandemic. The insurer paid R3.8 billion in total towards Covid-19 related claims.
This included R3.64 billion in death claims, R91 million in severe illness benefits, predominantly paid to clients admitted to intensive care units, and R64 million for income lost by those who couldn’t work because of how sick the virus made them.
Lessons on the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines
Discovery Life said the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines in preventing severe illness and death was clear as daylight in its claims data. So was leading a healthy and active lifestyle. Discovery Life saw an 85% reduction in the mortality of the highest-engaged members. And most of the mortalities among these members were recorded before vaccinations reached most of the population.
The insurer said it only recorded one Covid-19 death among Gold and Diamond Vitality status clients who were fully vaccinated. These customers have attained these higher vitality statuses because of their healthy lifestyles.
It also found that the healthier the lifestyle or more engaged the customers were, the higher their likelihood to get vaccinated. The vaccination rate among the most highly engaged Vitality members was 71% higher compared to Discovery Life clients who don’t engage with Vitality. The insurer said at least 75% of its policyholders are now fully vaccinated.
Discovery data shows unvaccinated members 20 times more likely to die of Covid-19 complications
Beyond Covid-19
But while the pandemic was responsible for 60% of all death claims Discovery Life paid in 2021, the insurer saw a marked increase in all claim categories. Severe illnesses claims for conditions like cancer, disability and income protection claims all went up by double digits.
Cancer, respiratory complications outside of Covid-19, nervous system complications, heart and artery complications and unnatural deaths also stood out as causes of life insurance claims.
“If we strip out the Covid-19 claims, for women, cancer and breast cancer specifically was definitely in the number one position,” said Discovery Life’s chief medical officer, Maritha van der Walt.
She said the leading cause of deaths among men outside of Covid-19 remained heart and artery complications. But there has been an increase in cancer deaths among men too. Cancer became the third-biggest cause of death claims among men.
As Covid-19 claims break records, it’s late diagnosis of serious cancers worrying Liberty
Spike in unnatural deaths
The dominance of Covid-19-related claims has taken the spotlight away from other trends that worry insurers as they appear proportionally smaller.
Take unnatural deaths for example: they decreased to 12% as a proportion of all deaths Discovery Life recorded in 2021, compared to 21% in 2020. But in absolute numbers, Discovery saw a 55% increase in those deaths 2021. These were mostly caused by vehicle accidents and suicides.
“When you lift the Covid-19 deaths out, you see that unnatural deaths were increasing,” said deputy CEO of Discovery Life, Gareth Friedlander.
Discovery Life initially saw a huge dip in unnatural deaths in 2020 because of the hard lockdown as most people were not driving around as they used to. But as the lockdown restrictions lifted, so did the number of cars on the roads and road fatalities. Friedlander said that’s pretty much back to normal levels now.
As for suicides, Friedlander said Discovery Life has observed an increasing trend for several years now. In 2021, claims related to suicides increased by 18% year-on-year.
“If you extrapolate the trend over a longer period, we’ve seen that in the last four years, we’ve had a 25% increase in suicides relative to the four years prior to that … And an interesting statistic is that no age group is immune to it,” said Friedlander.
After paying more than R400 million towards claims falling under mental and behavioural conditions in 2021, Friedlander said mental health is a big concern to Discovery Life and to insurers globally.
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