Investigating the Effects of the Coronavirus Outbreak on Life, Health and Travel Insurance

Global outbreak of the coronavirus since late 2019, has had a significant impact on the global economy and in this way has affected the insurance industry regarding its role in risk management and compensation for effects of such crises. Among these, according to the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic on people’s health and livelihood, three types of insurance namely life, health and travel insurance can be considered as susceptible sectors of the insurance industry to the current crisis, which strengthens the need for research in this field. In this regard, using the descriptive exploratory qualitative research, it is shown that the coronavirus can impact on life insurance through various channels such as increase in the death risk, sale and surrender of life insurance, underwriting process and financial aspects; and on health insurance through employerschr('39') insurance costs, medical expenses, demand for new medical services and special insurance policies, as well as changes in health insurance rates. Furthermore, COVID 19 pandemic can influence on travel insurance through travel reduction, change in loss and sale market, change in demand for coverage of travel insurance, change from registration of policy sale to registration of request for change of travel date, renewal of travel insurance and change in travel insurance distribution channels.