Precise, agreed-upon totals are hard to come by, particularly because many COVID-related claims are contested, litigated, excluded by policy language, or delayed in being reported.
But here is a summary of credible estimates and ranges for U.S. insurance costs tied to COVID-19, broken out by business interruption, workers compensation, and other lines or claims.
Some industry commentary suggests that the U.S. property and casualty (P&C) portion of COVID costs have reached about $44 billion to date—much of that from business interruption and event cancellation claims. WTW projected combined U.S. and U.K. COVID-19 general insurance losses in the range of $32 billion to $80 billion.
Reports suggest that the total global insured losses from COVID-19 across all affected lines could exceed $200 billion.
Some industry data points:
- WTW estimated in a study that U.S. insured losses for business interruption and event cancellation could range from $2.0 billion to $22.7 billion.
- The same WTW study gave a broad potential range for U.S. COVID-19 workers compensation losses: from as low as $0.2 billion to as high as $92 billion.
- WTW’s “general insurance” loss estimate of $32 billion to $80 billion included lines such as directors and officers, employment practices liability, general liability, trade credit, surety, contingency, and mortgage.
- National Council on Compensation Insurance data shows that, by end of 2020, private carriers and state funds reported roughly 45,000 pandemic-related claims with $260 million in incurred losses (realized and reserved). That averages about $6,000 per claim.
