IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY

In this paper, the author analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal and external aspects of insurance organizations, and particularly on insurance terms and conditions. The introductory part provides general remarks on the impact of the pandemic on community and economy, also defining the subject of the paper. In the second part, the author explores how insurers responded to new working conditions and behaved in relation to their self-organization and to the public and the insured persons. Particular developments in a macroeconomic and political context relating to covering losses from COVID-19 are also analyzed. The author concludes that a certain delay in making the amendments and supplements to the list of communicable diseases was justified, whereas the main characteristic of extended cover for COVID-19 provided by domestic insurers is not the reimbursement of medical treatment costs but the payment of daily allowance and provision of information and particular services. In addition, the author concludes that wordings used to exclude the risk of communicable diseases may create particular dilemmas as to whether a loss event may be considered insured, depending on the circumstances and time of its occurrence, and depending on the provisions of positive legal regulations.

Keywords: pandemic, COVID-19, communicable disease, insurance cover, insurance terms and conditions