Surging insurance claims as cancer strikes

The worsening economy also saw retrenchments accounting for 35.6% of claims from customers under the age of 35 at Liberty last year.

Liberty paid out over R3 billion in claims from its individual risk cover solutions for the 2014 financial year - the largest pay-out in its history since first publishing its claims statistics in 2006.

The insurer has paid out more than R20 billion since first publishing its claims statistics nine years ago.

In 2014, the majority of payments were for claims on life cover policies, totalling R2.2 billion. The insurer also paid out R411 million for income protection benefits, while R408 million in critical illness claims were settled.

MEDICAL CLAIMS

Liberty’s Director for Risk Product Innovation, Nicholas van der Nest, said the 2014 claims figures showed that cancer was the biggest reason for all Liberty claims. 

“One in four claims was for cancer, a trend that we have seen developing over the years.   About 30% of claims paid to women were related to cancer claims, and for men this was 21.7%,” said Van der Nest. “With medical advancements such as better screening programmes and more awareness around health and lifestyle, cancers are being diagnosed earlier and at younger ages, and people are now more likely to survive a cancer diagnosis.”

The statistics reveal that for critical illness benefits, cancer was the largest natural cause of claims at 44.7% of critical illness claims paid, followed by cardiac and cardiovascular conditions at 29.5% and strokes at 12.2%.

Breast cancer was the most prevalent cancer among women (49.7% of critical illness claims for women), followed by skin cancer (8.3%).

For men, prostate cancer was the most prevalent cancer (28.1% of cancer claims paid), followed by skin cancer (10.7%).  

LOSS OF INCOME

The current economic environment also had a significant impact on Liberty’s customers, particularly its younger customers. 

Retrenchment was responsible for 35.6% of claims for customers under 35 and accounted for 15.1% of all unnatural causes under loss of income protection benefits.

“Considering the number of life cover claims for customers under the age of 35, it is clear that motor vehicle accidents remain a significant risk, accounting for 51.5% of all life protection claims for males in this group, but only 16.7% of claims for females in this group,” he notes.

This highlights another interesting trend; men and women have different insurance buying habits, Liberty noted. Men generally take up life insurance cover, whereas women seem to be more conscious of the risk of critical illness and disability and tend to purchase loss of income protection cover.

LIBERTY 2014 CLAIM STATS FAST FACTS

• Liberty paid out R3 018 527 335 to customers in 2014.

• 72.9% (or R2.2 billion) was paid out for Life Cover.

• 13.6% (or R411 million) was paid out for Loss of Income Protection benefits.

• 13.5% (or R408 million) was paid for Critical Illness cover.

• 67.8% of all claims were for men and the remaining 32.2% for women.