Old Mutual will not be charging its unvaccinated current customers higher premiums – for now. This comes after the life insurance group announced a few weeks ago that it would “offer differentiated pricing” to new customers, depending on their COVID-19 vaccination status, reports Business Insider SA.
However, the statement led to confusion regarding its position on its current customers, some of whom understood it to mean an increase in premiums on insurance products it had already sold to customers who have not been vaccinated. However, the company has not ruled this out yet.
“We are not making changes to existing customers premiums, although this may change in future," says Old Mutual GM of Protection Solutions Kavir Ramjee.
“In the same way non-smokers should not have to cross-subsidise the insurance premiums of smokers, we believe the same principle should apply to vaccinated customers, who should not have to cross-subsidise their unvaccinated counterparts,” Ramjee said.
News that the company will be applying what it calls differentiated pricing follows the insurance sector seeing a sharp increase in deaths resulting from COVID-19.
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