China’s Gift: Carona Virus Pandemic Threatens Insurers in two ways and one is way More Costly

Travel Insurance Providers may face claims for cancellations for travel plans yet taken. But the HUGE risk is covering costs for people ALREADY overseas. That’s way more costly

 

For people with travel insurance taken out prior to the #CaronaVirus being made a declared event, getting your money back will be relatively straight forward. In fact for most part, now that countries are closing their borders, the risks are going back onto the providers,because they cannot claim a lost booking if NO ONE is allowed to travel in. Refunds on flights will be easy to manage, and there will be a few claims for those bookings with a no refund element from the airline, but they tend to be at the lower cost market.

For Insurers the huge costs (potential losses) are having people STUCK overseas.

And for many Australians, traveling to Europe or North America during our summer, to work the ski fields, see the northern lights and so on is a hige draw card.

Travel Insurers need to start thinking about getting people home soon, or face months and months of paying for private hotels rooms, food etc for travelers stuck overseas. Instead of say a change over cost of change of plans costing a few hundreds or maybe even a couple of thousands, Travel Insurers like RACV, Travel Insurers Direct, and Covermore face accommodation and sustenance charges that could get into fifteen, twenty or thirty thousand dollars PER CLIENT if their customers are stuck in no fly or no travel zones. And let’s not talk about the costs if one of themis stuck in the rorting US medical system

China’s Gift has a fat tail. Right now, like an unhappy cat, that tail is swiping all the good trinkets off the bench!

Surviving the Hoons

Apr 13, 2010

One of the current affairs TV programs did a story recently on the efforts by NSW police to crack down on ‘hoon’ drivers through a specific squad targeting them. The Victorian Police recently announced a similar project with the squad headed up by one of Victoria Police’s most effective senior officers, Inspector Bernie Rankin. Unusually…

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Hamilton Hoons and Five more die

Mar 28, 2010

Lewis Hamilton, the former automotive Formula One ‘number one’ had his car impounded on Friday night for alleged ‘hoon’ driving, having been spotted by police spinning his wheels at a busy intersection in St Kilda. Whilst many character witnesses have already jumped to his defence, with one interesting observation from Mark Webber suggesting we have…

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The Future of Australia’s Dairy Industry

Mar 9, 2010

Following on from the highly rated ‘Skimming the Cream’ forum in Brisbane on the 9th of February, members of the Young Dairy Network and SubTropical Dairy groups reconvened to consider the impacts of Climate Change on the dairy sector in Australia using the high-impact ‘Accelerated Scenarios process’. The ‘2030 Dairy Scenarios’ brought together the members…

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Thinking outside the cloud – a new tourism angle for Queensland

Feb 17, 2010

Queensland is one state that leverages its weather to the hilt – and the fact is the ‘Sunshine State’ earns its reputation. The odd thing is that in the past week I’ve spent in the Gold Coast experiencing the warm, humid and often wet weather it has occured to me that Queensland might be missing…

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Terrorism the Games wild card

Jan 31, 2010

In a recent article in The Age, Clive Williams of Macquarie University’s Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism suggested that athletes booked in to attend the Commonwealth games in India need to consider a terrorist attack as a potential wildcard. Whilst an interesting perspective, I’d like to suggest that a potential terrorist attack at…

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For Valentines Day, its Tigers all ’round

Jan 10, 2010

If my information is correct, the 14th of February is the start of the New Year and instead of the usual flowers and chocolates, you might be wise to invest in another gift for your heart’s desire Because Feb 14 is the start of the Chinese New Year – the year of the Tiger. So…

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What can we expect in the next decade?

Dec 28, 2009

Had any thoughts yet? I have – plenty and judging from the number of media inquiries it appears lots of other people are also curious to know what might lie ahead in the next year or next decade. I’m putting my thinking hat on so that we can consider what 2010-2019 might hold, the second…

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Copenhagen Consensus is likely – just not the type we want.

Dec 7, 2009

I’m tipping that Consensus will be reached at Copenhagen this week. Alas it will be a consensus for more talking, thinking and commitments to agree to a proposal to set a time for a discussion around more concrete targets. In otherwords, a commitment to not commit. The politicians waver whilst our planet is being poisoned.…

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Counter Mantra to Christmas Credit

Nov 30, 2009

The cycle of consumption rears its head as it has done for quite some time. Consumption is neither good, nor bad, it ‘just is’ and right now the majority of media exposed potential consumers are being lured, enticed and occasionally conned into parting with their hard earned money to satisfy needs and whims. Some consumers…

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What kids can teach us about Goal Directed futures

Nov 16, 2009

Our son has just celebrated his fifth birthday and although we don’t make a huge fuss about milestones (the kids get a party every second year), there’s no doubt that he is learning about desired future outcomes and goals. I doubt he is different from most kids in his ability to spot something and declare…

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