The insurance and takaful industry is working with the Ministry of Health and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to explore methods to reduce the treatment costs of Covid-19 patients, especially in private hospitals.
The Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM), the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM) and the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) in a joint statement stated that generally, pandemic-related risks are not covered under any insurance and takaful plan worldwide.
"The exemption stems from the difficulty of setting prices for protection related to events such as pandemics that may only occur once in a lifetime including unforeseen impact and costs. Covid-19 is a pandemic, so the epidemic is not insured or covered under medical and health insurance and takaful benefits.
"However, in response to the immediate needs of the country during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, the majority of life insurers and takaful operators have provided additional benefits such as daily hospital income to be paid to affected policyholders / certificate holders," the association said as reported by Named.
The statement added that the industry supports the protection of the interests of policyholders and certificate holders as well as contributing to the success of private and public partnerships in winning the fight against the pandemic.
According to the statement, the insurance and takaful industry has acted quickly in an effort to implement various assistance measures to help policyholders and certificate holders cope with the financial impact of the pandemic.
This includes the deferment of policy premiums and takaful contributions which has benefited more than one million policyholders as well as certificate holders involving premiums and contributions worth more than RM1.6 billion.
The Covid-19 Test Fund (CTF) of RM8 million was established in March 2020 to enable medical and health insurance policyholders to undergo Covid-19 screening tests.
Apart from that, it is clear from the statement that, in addition to the overall industry efforts, insurance companies and individual takaful operators have also launched various schemes to assist policyholders and certificate holders.
