Several local insurance companies have halted sales of overseas travel insurance policies that cover against medical expenses due to sudden illness, in a bid to curb potential losses amid payouts for COVID-19, company data showed.
As a result, people might find it more difficult to purchase insurance policies with coverage of medical expenses for sudden illness, which is required of travelers by some foreign governments, such as in the EU.
Since many insurers only offer travel insurance that compensates for losses in accidents or covers expenses for emergency rescue, travelers, if infected with COVID-19 abroad, would likely have to pay for their medical treatment.
Photo: CNA
Insurers are halting sales of travel insurance as the amount of compensation for COVID-19 insurance policies had grown to NT$5.47 billion (US$183.92 million) as of Monday last week, nearly twice the premiums of NT$2.79 billion from sales of such products, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed.
All insurance companies have terminated sales of COVID-19 insurance policies, with only a few vaccine insurance policies still available, the commission said.
Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險) yesterday said on its Web site that it had suspended its travel inconvenience insurance policy as it is modifying the terms of the product, but still offers another policy, dubbed “travel safety insurance.”
Unlike the former policy, which covers against medical expenses, the travel safety insurance policy only covers expenses of emergency rescues, as well as losses from theft and fire, corporate data showed.
Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰世紀產險) last week announced that it would stop selling its travel inconvenience insurance and Schengen travel insurance because of numerous COVID-19 alerts overseas.
The insurance arm of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) continues to sell another policy, also called “travel safety insurance,” which compensates those who are hurt in accidents abroad or their families if they die, corporate data showed.
Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) and CTBC Insurance Co (中國信託產險), insurance units of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), no longer offer travel insurance that covers sudden illness on their Web sites.
Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) has not suspended its travel insurance with coverage for medical expenses due to sudden illness, making it one of the few local insurers that still offers such a policy, corporate data showed.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS