Coronavirus spread: Insurance companies relax premium payments

To meet the challenge of managing businesses amidst the coronavirus spread, leading insurance companies have started providing relaxation in premium contribution/payment. Also, some of them are offering added benefits on account of COVID-19 against the active policies and free online medical consultations to the existing and intended policyholders.

Jalal Meghani, Deputy Managing Director Adamjee Life Insurance, said the grace period for premium contribution/payment has been extended to 30th June, 2020. It will be available to all the current as well as future policyholders. This arrangement has been made to facilitate policyholders amidst the economic and emotional stress due to the spread of coronavirus, he added. He said, an added benefit of Rs 150,000 for a free online medical consultations have been offered to the existing and intended policyholders.

When asked about the financial impact of the step, he said it would be quite manageable through the utilization of the marketing budget of the company. He said the company has got an encouraging response of the offer and the number of those having availed the facility runs into thousands. It is up to our expectations, he added.

The insurance companies are operating virtual offices to cater for the needs of policyholders during the lockdown period. Their websites and social pages are also fully active to market the new set of offers and facilities. Besides, dedicated SMS services have also been launched where automatic messages are generated for potential customers 24/7.

Meghani said the policyholders are no more required to visit offices as they can now make their payments online. In normal circumstances, he said, most of the benefits are discontinued if a premium is not paid during the grace period and the policy gets a dormant status. But this feature has been suspended for the time being and those whose premium was due for the month of March and April are facilitated to pay it up to June 30.

He said Adamjee Insurance has also withdrawn the price attached to the hospital cash back plan for those having availed life insurance policy. All such policyholders would be entitled to a free of cost hospital cash back the facility under which their hospitalization cost is reimbursed up to a certain limit.

Khurshid Ahmed from State Life Insurance also confirmed a similar development, saying that the Corporation was due to issue a notification for deferring the payment of premium up to a certain period due to the spread of coronavirus.

Chairman Insurance Association of Pakistan (IAP) Muhammad Hussain Hirji said the IAP will soon start working on providing specialized insurance cover for business interruption due to events beyond the control of any individuals or organizations such as the global pandemic we are currently facing. He said the sector is experiencing great difficulty in providing businesses and individuals with the service and support that they expect from the insurance industry; therefore they should be allowed to operate.