One of the devastating impacts of COVID-19 was the increased health & hospital expenditure for lakhs of families across the country. This impact was more pronounced in the case of those without a health insurance policy. This impact seems to have driven a lot more people to opt for health insurance in 2020-21 if data is to be believed. Most non-life insurance companies reported a significant increase in the number of new Health Insurance Policies during 2020-21. In an earlier story, we had observed that there is a 36% increase in the amount of Life Insurance claims due to death, during the first three quarters of 2020-21. The increasing trend in the value of insurance claims due to death was seen across public & private insurers. At the same time, it was observed that the health insurance claims had reduced in the first three quarters of 2020-21 compared to that of the previous year. While there could be multiple factors influencing these trends, COVID-19 certainly played a huge role. In this story, we look at the trends in Insurance premiums paid with respect to Life insurance & health insurance in 2020-21 compared to the previous years to understand if premiums and the number of new policies have been influenced by COVID-19. Lower growth of Life Insurance Premium earned during 2020-21 across major insurance companies As per the Public Disclosure by various Insurance companies and data available on the IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India) website, the total Life Insurance premium earned by the major Life Insurance companies in India has continued with the increasing trend even during 2020-21. However, the growth rate has slowed down compared to the earlier years. As per the information provided by LIC, which is the largest Life Insurance provider in the country, the total premium earned during 2020-21 amounted to Rs. 4.03 lakh crores, an increase of 6.3 % compared to 2019-20. This is less than the 12.4% growth reported in 2019-20 which was an exceptional year. The growth rate in the earlier years also hovered around 6%. Apart from LIC which is a Public Sector insurer, most of the other major Private sector insurance companies have reported a similar trend in their earnings through Life Insurance Premiums. The trend over the past few years shows that the growth rate of premium earnings has fluctuated. It also ought to be noted that a large share of the insurance premiums paid would be renewals. The trends in renewals and new insurance premiums could offer more insights into the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the available data, it is difficult to ascertain whether the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on these trends. 41% fall in the amount of Premium earned through new subscribers for LIC Out of the Rs. 4.03 lakh crores of Life Insurance premium earned by LIC in 2020-21, nearly Rs. 2.19 lakh crores are through renewals. This is an increase of around 18 thousand crores compared to the 2.01 lakh crores in 2019-20. Similarly, there is an increase in the revenue earned through ‘Single Premium’ i.e., Policies with one-time Payment. However, in the case of first-year premiums i.e., the premium for new policies taken during the year, there is a fall reported during 2020-21. A total of Rs. 33.93 thousand crores were earned through first-year premiums in 2020-21 compared to nearly Rs. 58 thousand crores during 2019-20. A review of the earlier years shows that there has been an increasing trend in the years before 2020-21, in terms of revenue earned through first-year premiums. Among the leading Private Life Insurers, ICICI Prudential has reported a fall in the revenue earned through first-year Premiums. Meanwhile, there is a slight increase in the revenues through first-year premiums for other leading Private insurers like – SBI Life, Aditya Birla Sun Life & Kotak Mahindra. But the growth during 2020-21 has been lower when compared to the previous years. In the case of revenue earned through policy renewals, there has been an increase across all the top insurers. Single Premiums, which as in the case of first-year premiums point towards new insurance policy subscriptions, have seen an increase for all the leading Life Insurance companies. The number of new individual policies falls in the case of LIC & ICICI Prudential The fall in the revenue earned through first-year premiums for LIC is reflected in the fall of new individual insurance policies for 2020-21. Around 2.09 crore new LIC life Insurance policies were subscribed to in 2020-21 compared to 2.18 crore policies the previous year. This is as per the Business Acquisition details provided as part of Public Disclosure.