Mortality claims statistics from the insurance industry show that more than a million policyholders died in the most recent one-year measurement period, which the sector says is “no doubt” linked to Covid-19.
Data from the Association for Savings and Investment SA (Asisa) shows that 1,023,083 policyholders died between April 1 2020 and March 31 2021 — a 43% increase on the 713,350 deaths over the corresponding period in the previous year.
The statistics, which were released by Asisa on Tuesday, reflect claims made against individual life, group life policies offered by employers, credit life and funeral policies.
Total payouts across the various insurance lines for the period totalled R47.58bn.
“These are staggering numbers and there is no doubt that Covid-19 has caused many of these 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,” said Hennie de Villiers, deputy chair of the Asisa life and risk board committee.
“The hard lockdown conditions, curfews and alcohol bans would have reduced violent and accidental deaths.”
The claims data is the latest to give an indication of the devastation caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. It supports arguments that actual deaths from the pandemic may be far higher than the official 81,830 deaths that had been recorded by Tuesday afternoon. Many deaths, particularly in impoverished and marginalised communities, occur before a Covid-19 diagnosis can be made.
The SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) estimates that there have been more than 240,000 excess deaths since the start of the pandemic. Using SA’s recorded Covid-19 case fatalities with the excess death data, which measures mortality numbers in relation to the historical average, Discovery estimates that 70%-80% of the population may have contracted the virus.
Stats SA reported in July that Covid-19 had caused a significant increase in the country’s crude death rate, from 8.7 deaths per 1,000 people in 2020 to 11.6 deaths per 1,000 people in 2021.
The increase caused life expectancy at birth to decline.
Life expectancy at birth for SA males dropped from 62.4 in 2020 to 59.3 in 2021, while for females life expectancy fell to 64.6 years, from 68.4 in 2020.
While SA’s vaccine rollout continues to make progress, it is being hampered by stubborn hesitancy in sectors of the population and the arrival of new variants of the virus.
A new variant, dubbed C.1.2, has been detected in all provinces of SA, though the Delta variant remains the dominant Covid-19 mutation.
Asisa said the R47.58bn paid out to policyholders during the latest measurement period played an important role in supporting consumers and the economy. It said the total claims payouts compared favourably with the R60bn in support from the government’s Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme to furloughed workers from its inception in March 2020 to July 2021.
De Villiers said the SA insurance industry remains resilient thanks to the R3.23-trillion in assets held at the end of 2020, compared with liabilities of R2.89-trillion. That left the industry with free assets of R333.5bn, more than double the capital required by the solvency capital requirements.
He expects death claims to continue to tell a “grim story” as the severity of the third wave of Covid-19 infections becomes apparent in mortality statistics.
“While the life industry remains well capitalised and in a strong position to continue paying death claims, no amount of money can make up for the loss of a loved one,” he said. “We urge all South Africans to get vaccinated rather than risk death, severe illness or long-term debilitating side effects.”
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