ABU DHABI // Deaths caused by road traffic accidents represented a small, but significant – and rising – proportion of life cover claims for an insurer operating in the Middle East in a six-year period.
Zurich International Life, one of the only providers which publishes statistics for the Middle East, paid out Dh246 million in critical illness and life cover claims between January 2013 and December last year – representing a rise of 42.5 per cent on the previous period from January 2012 to December 2014.
Vascular problems – heart attacks and strokes – constituted the largest single group of causes for life cover claims between 2013 and last year at 43 per cent, followed by cancer at 32 per cent, renal problems at 9 per cent, and other causes at 8 per cent.
Road accidents also constituted 8 per cent of all causes of life claims between 2013 and last year, a figure that rose from 5 per cent in the previous three-year period.
“That may just be a statistical anomaly,” said Chris Bagnall, chief underwriter for Zurich International Life Limited in the Middle East and Asia.
“The numbers are too low to draw a conclusion. I think if I saw a trend over several years we could say it is on the increase but it is just one of those things. A couple of extra deaths can increase that, so I don’t think we can draw that conclusion yet.”
Of Zurich’s critical illness claims, which pay out when the policyholder has a listed illness diagnosed, cancer represented 49 per cent, followed by vascular problems at 48 per cent, renal problems at 2 per cent and other causes at 1 per cent.
“As a percentage, we see a higher percentage of heart attacks and strokes than the UK. Cancer is similar to other countries,” Mr Bagnall said.
“It is the vascular deaths, the heart attacks and strokes, that are higher. What we have started seeing now is renal [problems], so deaths and claims for critical illness – [because] we pay out for kidney failure for critical illness as well – that is starting to increase a little bit as well.”
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