Insurers avoid unemployment policies: risk has become a certainty

Autor: Angela Placinta 13.05.2010

Employees cannot conclude individual unemployment policies at present, because insurers are no longer interested in this market segment, in the context where the risk insured against has basically become a certainty. Moreover, because several hundred thousand employees have lost their jobs since the beginning of the crisis, unemployment insurance has become very expensive.

"Under the circumstances, the random factor is gone, and insurance companies cannot come up with an affordable offer, the premium should be very high. A rough calculation would put the premium at around 20% of the insured sum. I doubt anyone would be willing to pay this much," said Cristian Constantinescu, chairman of the National Association of Insurance Companies in Romania (UNSAR) and former CEO of Allianz-Tiriac, the biggest company on this market last year.