According to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association’s (CLHIA) annual Canadian Life & Health Insurance Facts, Canada’s life and health insurers paid out more than $312-million a day in benefits in 2022. “Canadians received a record $114-billion in benefits from life and health insurance products last year – up 10 per cent from 2019. This included payments for health insurance claims, life insurance and insurance-based retirement products,” they write.
The CLHIA says nearly $54-billion were paid in retirement benefits, nearly $44-billion were paid out for health benefits and $16-billion in claims were paid for life insurance.
The 2023 edition also discusses how insurers invest, their tax contributions and international operations – revenue from premiums outside of North America have more than tripled since 2012, they say.
Broken down even further, the industry paid $43.9-billion in claims for supplementary health, disability and accident coverage, up eight per cent compared to the previous year. The industry also paid out $14.3-billion in prescription drug claims – also up eight per cent; $650-million in mental health support claims is an increase of 10 per cent since 2021 and nearly double since 2019. The industry also added more than 3,000 jobs during the year.
“The number of Canadians covered by health insurance surpassed 27-million for the first time,” they write. “An additional 600,000 were enrolled in workplace health plans in 2022.”
CLHIA’s 63 member companies account for 99 per cent of Canada’s life and health insurance business.
