Taiwan insurance companies suffer heavy losses on COVID and vaccine policy payouts
Some of Taiwan’s largest insurance companies have applied for capital reserve funding increases and short term loans to cover losses to the tune of more than NT$80 billion as Covid-19 and COVID vaccine insurance claims continue to pour in, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday, September 6.
The FSC Insurance Bureau reported that from the beginning of the year to September 5, there had been more than 1.7 million claims settled on COVID-19 insurance and more than 386,000 claims settled for vaccine-related insurance. The total amount paid out for COVID-19 insurance claims exceeded NT$64.6 billion, and that of vaccine-related claims totaled NT$16.05 billion.
The report noted that the insurance industry issued 4.733 million COVID-19 policies with a total premium income of NT$4.5 billion, meaning that claims paid out so far have reached more than 14 times the premium income. Vaccine insurance policies numbered 2.403 million, with a premium income of NT$1.01 billion, meaning that paid out claims were more than 15 times the premium income.
In the past week, from August 30 to September 5, the total amount of claims on COVID-19 policies increased by 127,000, while vaccine-related claims grew by 44,000, with a value of NT$5.41 billion and NT$1.81 billion respectively.
The FSC reported that a total of four property and casualty insurance companies have applied for capital increase approval, namely Cathay Century Property and Casualty Insurance with a capital increase of NT$10 billion, CITIC Property Insurance with a capital increase of NT$4 billion, Fubon Property and Casualty Insurance with a capital increase of NT$15 billion, Tokio Marine Newa Insurance increased capital by NT$14.7 billion, with a total application for capital increase of NT$43.7 billion.
In addition, the FSC has approved short-term loans to three property and casualty insurance companies to help finance the huge number of claims.
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I wonder how widely known “on the ground” these stupendous figures are. I’d wager they go way over the heads of most people. My main question is where do the “capital reserve funding increases and short term loans” come from? From the taxpayers, perchance? If so, it would mean that beneficiaries are being given a free ride at the expense of those who do not benefit.
Obviously, and that is why the money is becoming more and more worthless (inflation).
Smoke and mirrors in our carnival economy.
Roll up, roll up, roll up your sleeves,
get the jab and hide your peeves.