Panamanian businessmen consider unviable the bill that intends to force insurance companies to cover medical expenses related to the coronavirus.

The bill, which was presented by Representative Zulay Rodriguez, seeks to ensure that insurance company clients are attended to in case they are infected with covid-19, however, policies do not usually provide coverage when the disease is declared as an epidemic or pandemic.

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Arturo Saenz, president of the Panamanian Association of Insurers (Apadea), told Prensa.com that “… The exclusion of the epidemic is international. Imposing a law like that would be quite traumatic, because it would leave us without reinsurance coverage. For the purposes of our business, we don’t see it as viable.”

Amilcar Cordoba, former president of Apadea, also criticized the bill, saying that such proposals “… are against the free market and freedom of contract.”

Insurers expect that the impact on health insurance contracts of the coronavirus crisis will not be significant, nor do they foresee great variations in the payment of claims caused by the expansion of infections.

Source: Prensa.com