Insurance Rates Are About To Rise Due To Covid-19

By now most people in the United States have been affected by COVID-19, in one way or another. There is no doubt that most businesses have been affected, including insurance companies. That's why insurance companies are asking the state of New York to approve an increase in their premiums for 2021.

During the spring, the state of New York was the epicenter of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Not only did we have record-breaking hospitalizations during the spring, we also endured unthinkable death. It has been estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic could cost the New York Insurance industry $2 billion.

According to Biz Journals, Hospitals and healthcare facilities incurred an increase in expenses because cleaning, sanitizing, and testing was increased substantially. Hospitals also had to increase their personal protective equipment, to protect the healthcare workers, and testing fees were waived. All of these things cost the insurance industry a lot of money, and they are asking the government to allow them to increase their premiums to mitigate their losses. We don’t even know yet how much more money insurance companies will have to bail out to cover all of these expenses.

With so many people unemployed at this time, we know that the number of uninsured people in this country will also increase. This is terrible news in the middle of a pandemic. COVID-19 is definitely going to affect the health insurance industry, but we can’t move forward with citizens of this country unable to afford the healthcare and health insurance they deserve. So right now, we will have to wait and see what the government is going to do about the increase in premiums that the insurance companies are requesting.