COVID-19 accelerates health insurance industry change
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Dec 2020
COVID-19 has created more change in 2020 than over the last 20 years in the insurance industry, according to a global market report by Swiss health and InsurTech firm dacadoo.
One of the biggest effects the pandemic has had on the industry is that social distancing measures have made it much more difficult for insurers to meet clients face-to-face to sell, cross-sell and up-sell their policies.
“Insurers need to have a unique understanding of the consumer’s life and offer the consumer the right client-driven digital life and health ecosystem, without being able to meet each other in person, as this may have changed for good,” said the report.
On the other hand, consumers have demonstrated loyalty to organisations that commit to being altruistic and helping their customers, clients and stakeholders during the global pandemic, rather than the ones focusing on profit, it said.
Meanwhile, consumers who noticed brands acting in their own self-interest tend to detach themselves from those organisations.
dacadoo’s ‘Global Integrated Insurance Operator’ survey in October showed that in 2020 and during the pandemic, insurers have understood the importance of attaching a health and well-being proposition to their products, with over 80% of respondents agreeing on this matter.
The survey also found that insurers who are aware of the serious, long-term consequences of COVID-19 agree that implementing an integrated insurance operator approach ranks either high (44%) or middle place (42%) in their hierarchy of strategic initiatives, with only 13% of insurers ranking it low on their strategic priorities. M