Since life insurers operate within the financial sector, they are considered an essential service during the 21-day lockdown. This means South Africans can still apply for, and be given, life insurance, disability insurance and dread disease cover. However, Moneyewb reports, in order to receive significant amounts of cover, clients are usually asked to go through some level of medical assessment. At a minimum, this requires a blood test for HIV and cotinine (which indicates whether the person is a smoker). Sometimes a full medical by a doctor is requested.
Under normal circumstances, the blood for the HIV and cotinine tests would be taken by travelling nurses who visit applicants at home or their place of work. With the country in lockdown, however, this service should stop.
But, the report says, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) issued a stern rebuke to insurers who have not done so, and instead designated their travelling nurses as “essential services”. “This not only exposes these nurses and customers unnecessarily but detracts from the ability of laboratories to focus efforts on the pandemic,” the FSCA noted. The report says the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa, the industry body for the insurance and asset management sectors, supports the FSCA’s statement.
[link url="https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/regulator-reprimands-life-companies-still-taking-blood-tests/"]Full Moneyweb report[/link]