Bulletin 18 | Adrian Baskir
Covid-19 presents a significant disruption to the healthcare supply chain with unprecedented consequences to the health insurance sector. Health insurance typically affords its customers access to quicker and in some cases, perceived better quality of care. But public healthcare has become the only option for COVID-19 treatment in some of these countries. In the UK, independent hospitals are currently re-provisioned to the NHS, so access for non-urgent non-COVID-19 treatment is temporarily reduced. In other countries, lockdown measures, rather than re-provisioning, would reduce access to non-COVID-19 treatment.
Health insurers are expected to see significant fall in claims during the COVID-19 disruption period followed by a prolonged claims “rebound” after that. On balance, net gains are expected over time and many are exploring mechanisms to ensure that customers are not disadvantaged in the process.