Insurance companies paid 26 trillion rials ($104 million) to hospitals and medical centers mostly to compensate medical bills related to Covid-19, head of the Central Insurance company of Iran said.
“We required insurance companies to broaden the scope of medical insurance to cover expenses related to coronavirus,” Gholamreza Soleimani was quoted as saying by ILNA.
“All the medicine listed by the Health Ministry are included in the coverage,” Soleimani said. “Covid test costs are also to be covered by insurers if prescribed by physicians.”
Insurers have been struggling to minimize the negative impact of the pandemic on their businesses. Several companies extended coverage to include a part of hospitalization bills of the insured afflicted by the virus.
As of Tuesday evening (Dec. 8) Iran’s reported coronavirus infection was 1,062,397. The official death toll was 50, 917 and 754,224 people had recovered.
In September, the CII, the regulatory body of the industry, and a private insurance firm crafted a new package for covering losses to the business community due to the deadly disease. The package was to help protect 70 types of businesses from the plague that has spared no one.
More than 25 million Iranians have medical insurance. Insurance companies generated 11.6 trillion rials ($50 million) from medical insurance in the first two months of the current year (March 20-May 20). This was 42.15% higher compared to the same period last year, though the medical segment’s share of total premium declined to 13%.
The sector paid 6.6 trillion rials ($28m) to medical centers affiliated to the Ministry of Health to help them overcome financial constraints inflicted by the virus spread.
As per law, insurance companies are obliged to pay 10% of their revenue from third-party auto insurance - the category with the highest share in insurance companies' portfolio -- to the Health Ministry.
The Iranian Insurers' Syndicate published a report assessing the impact of the virus on the nascent sector. It forecast 13% increase in premium in the current fiscal year that ends in March 2020. Insurers reported 32% growth in premium income in the previous fiscal year.
Insurers' collective premium income was expected to reach 1,000 trillion rials ($3.12 billion) in the current fiscal year. However, given the financial ruin caused by the plague and rising inflation, the amount is not expected to exceed 800 trillion rials ($2.5 billion).
