Does Your Life Insurance Policy include Covid-19?

If you hold a life insurance policy in Australia, policy will almost certainly include health events that are caused by Covid-19. This is especially the case for policies that pre-date 2020, but is also almost always the case for policies that you took out before you became or become ill with Covid-19. Covid-19 is included in pre-existing life insurance policies.

So, if you or someone you love is seriously affected by an experience of Covid-19, your existing life insurance should not be affected. Most insurers have been proactive about reassuring their policy holders that Covid-19 has not impacted their coverage. We were going to quote all of the insurers, but there are too many. So, here is a quickform ‘A to Z’ of what life insurers have to say about Covid-19. Because there are so many, we skipped B to Y and just went with the ones starting with A and Z!

• AIA: “If you hold AIA Health Insurance, we have extended cover for COVID-19 to all of our policies.”
• Allianz: “Your Allianz life insurance policy does not contain a specific policy exclusion for COVID-19 or for taking the COVID-19 vaccine.”
• AMP: There are no pandemic exclusions in place for insurance offered through AMP as a result of COVID-19. This means, you’re eligible to make a claim so long as the usual terms and conditions that apply to your insurance are met.”
• Asteron: “There are no general exclusions for COVID-19 in any of our individual life insurance policies.”
• Zurich: “Our Life Insurance products cover pandemics. While the current pandemic is something we couldn’t have foreseen a short while ago, rest assured your Life policy does not have a pandemic exclusion.”

So you can see that the inclusion of Covid-19 related claims is consistent across insurers. (Please note we are not recommending the above insurers, or recommending against insurers from B to Y).

In more good news, the inclusion extends to rare adverse health events related to vaccination. As long as the health impact meets the definition in your policy (for example, in terms of lost income), the fact that the event is related to vaccination does not make a difference.

That’s Great News for Existing Policies? What About if I Do Not Yet Have Life Insurance?

If you do not yet have a life insurance policy in place, and you have had Covid-19, you will need to declare that on your application. This is because you have a duty to declare any health-related information to the insurer before they consider your application for a policy. (If you have had other illnesses, such as cancer, you need to declare them as well).

If you are experiencing long-term impacts of Covid-19, then the insurer will talk with us both about how your policy should proceed. But please note that this will only be the case if there are long-term impacts. Getting the virus and recovering will typically not impact on your insurance application. As always, if you or someone you know needs to chat about life insurance, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.