Do you know when to hire personal insurance?

Flavio Rosa, member of the OEC, lives with his wife and two children in South Africa. He had just received his in-laws who came from Brazil to visit them when the covid-19 pandemic broke out worldwide.

“When they arrived in March, we still didn’t have any idea of the impact of all this,” says Flavio. The seriousness of the situation was still not very clear, neither in Brazil nor in South Africa. However, a week later, he got concerned: “My in-laws are over 65 years old, and the first thing I did was to talk to the Horiens team to understand whether the international travel insurance I had hired would cover hospital costs arising from covid-19, in case we needed. At that moment, the answer was no,” he explains.

Flavio has been in South Africa for 10 years working for OEC and hiring international travel insurance is a practice he adopts whenever his family and friends come to visit him. The pandemic exclusion clause in this insurance modality was common in the market. And no one could imagine what was coming or at least the proportion of the covid-19 wave.

When Flavio contacted the Horiens team, the first idea was to evaluate the hiring of an international health insurance that would cover pandemics. But this was a more complicated alternative due to several factors, such as the time of adhesion and the age of the beneficiaries, elevating costs. So the next step was to start a conversation with Prudential, Horiens’ partner for international travel insurance, in order to evaluate all possible alternatives.

For Flavio Rosa, member of OEC in South Africa, Horiens team’s performance was essential in following up and solving his international travel insurance case in view of covid-19 pandemic scenario. “I felt supported throughout the process. In the picture, Flavio with his family: his wife Juliana and their children, Lucas and Maria Alice.

“In parallel, we were already actively following this issue with insurance companies, and soon we had a positive feedback regarding the exclusion of the clause that restricted coverage in cases of pandemic”, explains Soraia Santiago, from Horiens’ Personal Insurance area.

For Paula Bernardoni, director of Distribution and Planning at Prudential do Brasil, the greatest challenge today for the risk and insurance sector is to experience a strong health crisis, in face of an illness without much history and statistics to help us in decision making. “We made a decision based on a very careful process. We have carried out a detailed actuarial study with the purpose of making compensations for cases of losses due to the new Coronavirus in a safe and efficient manner,” she says.

She also considers another aspect: “We also take into account important learning processes and behavioral changes in progress. Today, undoubtedly, people are more conscious about their own health, and there is a sense of care among people,” she concludes.

Soraia Santiago, from Horiens, points out that the risk and insurance sector has experienced deep learning and has been able to bring some answers, during this time of crisis. “Fortunately the insurance market is a mature sector and has reacted quickly to this adverse and extreme situation that we are facing. Many insurance companies have analyzed and reviewed this clause and, currently, they offer coverage for covid-19 cases”, she adds.

What to learn from this crisis

Assessing possible risks and planning to prevent or minimize their impacts is a basic safety premise. This applies to the business world, and this is already relatively well incorporated by companies. But do we take this principle seriously in our daily lives?

“We need to make a habit of personally evaluating the risks to which we are exposed and taking action in relation to them,” explains Laudelino Soares, head of Personnel Insurance at Horiens. “Once a risk has been identified, it is necessary to assess whether it can be shared. This is a basic concept of the relationship between insurer and insured. When you share, you count on the support of the insurance company, which is the part best prepared to manage the consequences and deal with the situation”, he adds.

For Flavio Rosa, one of the lessons he learned from the pandemic is personal safety. “Hiring an insurance – travel, health or others – deserves attention. We have to assess the options always in line with the global health picture and understand the coverage,” he says. “That’s why I see hiring an insurance through Horiens in a very positive way. From coverage, which, in general, is always thought for the best of the member, to the agility and quality of service, and intermediation with the insurance company in more complex situations. It all makes a difference in practice,” he says.