People with disabilities remain the most vulnerable part of our society due to current physical limitations. Registering and obtaining insurance coverage for this category of customers today should be as accessible and convenient as possible.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service, as of 2022, there are about 11 million people with different degrees of disability in Russia. According to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, 3.5 million of them are considered healthy, about 1 million are employed.
Despite the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the recommendations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the inadmissibility of discrimination against persons with disabilities, some insurance companies refuse to officially enter into contracts with customers with disabilities. risks. Fortunately, there are other examples on the Russian market.
Banks and insurers should not refuse credit and insurance services to individuals solely on the basis of age or assigned disability group.
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation expressed its official opinion on this issue in an information letter dated September 2, 2022. Rejections often occur because standard contracts for borrowers already provide such restrictions. From October 1, 2022, the Central Bank of Russia obliges all insurance companies and customers with disabilities to issue life and health insurance contracts.
Persons with disabilities in modern Russia should have full access to all insurance products. Fortunately, insurance companies are already prepared for this. Client zones are created taking into account the peculiarities of movement of people with limited mobility. Often there is the possibility of going home to conclude a deal, but this still needs to be clarified in a particular organization.
Yes, the process of obtaining a policy can be longer than usual. But this is because it is important to ask additional questions and find the disability group, but this is only to give the client the conditions relevant to him and the level of protection he needs. In addition, with life and health insurance, such a client always goes through the underwriting – a risk assessment, but again just to get a product exclusive to him.
In Europe, at the legislative level, the obligation of insurance organizations to contract with people with disabilities has been introduced. Any discrimination is prohibited there, broad support is provided to such groups of the population. The main task is to create equal living conditions in society with other citizens.
But the interests of insurance companies do not disappear from the focus of regulators. For example, in order to minimize the losses of an insurance company in Germany, it is possible to make monthly annual payments, not the entire insurance amount. As a rule, this happens when people with disabilities are helped to find a suitable job under the rehabilitation and professional retraining program. As a result, employment of the disabled reaches 82 percent here.
In Luxembourg and Finland, the general prohibition of discrimination is supported by sanctions in the penal code. Iceland has a disability law from 1992 that explains the principle of non-discrimination. Switzerland adopted an equal opportunity law and Greece a national action plan.
It is not possible to say with certainty whether the transformation of the insurance market according to the European type will take place in Russia. In our country, losses covered by insurance contracts for disabled customers are now at a controlled level – there is no need to do this, as, for example, in Germany. Moreover, there is no state system for professional retraining of such persons, at least at the level of employment centres.
Not all Russian insurance companies deal with disability insurance. Basically, these are the big players. But current norms already make it possible to make life and health insurance more accessible to customers with disabilities. In particular, there are programs that protect the disabled group even from the risk of increasing it.
Regarding further development, it is assumed that after the decision of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, new programs for customers with disabilities will take into account the characteristics of the insured person. And companies will not refuse to make a deal. While keeping the average bill at the cost level for other groups of the population, this will ensure that all groups of citizens are protected, and that’s not the most important thing.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.