The covid-19 pandemic is among the main reasons why people in Colombia today are taking more insurance, especially to protect their lives against eventual contingencies that may arise. Only at the end of last year, some 25 million people in the country had one of these policies with different coverages, according to the Federation of Colombian Insurers (Fasecolda).
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The demand for these life insurance policies grew last year by close to 5 percent in real terms per year, after the premiums went from 8,682 million pesos in 2021 to 10,229 million a year later.
«Thanks to the optimism of Colombians after the covid and the reactivation of mortgage loans leveraged by the support offered by the insurance for the payment of the obligation in the event of the debtor’s death», warns the insurance union, which adds that «Colombian families who suffered the loss of a loved one or their disability and who had some type of life insurance received compensation for 2.8 trillion pesos.
The demand for insurance to protect health in the face of a calamity was also favored by the pandemic, since more people acquired them in order to receive quality services in situations that compromise their lives. According to the union, there are already 800,000 people with a health insurance. The foregoing explains the growth in premiums from 4,858 million in 2021 to 5,902 million, while the claim rate of the policies increased to 75 percent.
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But in general terms, the Colombian insured industry attended claims for fires, winter weather, traffic accidents, health problems, occupational hazards, pension allowances, among others, for 22.8 billion pesos, close to 1 percent more in real terms compared to past year.
In general insurance branches, the largest payments for claims will be made for events such as the balance of compensation corresponding to Hidroituango, vehicle repair costs and miles of traffic accident victims, among others, which totaled 11.5 trillion pesos, 28.9 percent real per year more than in 2021.
soat crisis
“This result gives us indications that after the pandemic, more people received the benefits of insurance and went to purchase this type of product to protect their lives, health, and assets. The industry was not immune to the global economic crisis, the war in Ukraine, the change of government and the general problems of the economy such as the very high inflation, among others. However, the sector maintained its solidity, guaranteeing more and more the obligations it assumes to protect Colombians and their families.” expressed David Colmenares, president of the Board of Directors of Fasecolda.
One of the branches most affected was Soat, Warn from Fasecolda. The results of this deteriorated due to the high costs to deal with accidents. Indeed, the branch went from having a negative result of 192,800 million pesos in 2021, to one of -402,800 billion at the end of 2022.
In that last year, around 9.4 million Soat policies were issued, 4 percent more than the previous year. Although premiums grew close to 12 percent in that period, the value of claims paid increased by more than 27 percent, reaching 2.4 trillion pesos.
«This insurance continues to be in crisis in a context in which road accidents exceeded historical levels in the country: more than 8,000 deaths and nearly 1 million injured; and evasion and fraud persist.»
However, in the union they warned that with the measures adopted by the government in December 2022 and with those that are expected to be adopted soon, corruption in Soat charges can be mitigated and the number of victims of traffic accidents can be reduced.
Only in January 2023, 880,000 policies had been issued which, compared to the 692,000 in 2021, reflects a growth of 27 percent compared to the same period of the previous year in Soat.
