40M Filipinos covered by microinsurance

The number of Filipinos covered by cheaper microinsurance products has risen to 40 million as of end-September, the Insurance Commission said Monday.

As of end-2018, 38.9 million Filipinos had microinsurance coverage.

In a statement, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said most Filipinos turned to mutual benefit associations (MBAs) for their microinsurance needs.

“Taking up 62 percent of the market share in terms of number of individuals covered, the MBA sector covered 25 million members and dependents, which translate to a total of P3.91 billion in terms of premium production,” Funa said.

Among MBAs, CARD MBA Inc. cornered the bulk of both the number of insured and premium production at 80 percent and 82 percent of total, respectively.

As of September, life insurers covered eight million Filipinos with P1.95 billion worth of premiums, up 4 percent from P1.88 billion a year ago.
However, Funa said “the life insurance sector posted a 27-percent decrease in terms of number of insured lives from 11 million during the third quarter of 2018 to eight million of the same period this year.”

During the first nine months, the life insurance firm with the biggest number of individuals covered by microinsurance was Pioneer Life Inc.; meanwhile, CLIMBS Life and General Insurance Cooperative Inc. had the biggest premium production during the nine-month period.
As for non-life insurers, they sold P720 million in premiums at end-September, up 19.1 percent from P604 million a year ago.
Non-life companies also increased the number of Filipinos they covered with microinsurance policies by 74 percent to seven million from a year ago’s four million.

The top non-life insurer in terms of number of lives covered was Pioneer Insurance and Surety Corp., while premium production was led by CARD Pioneer Microinsurance Inc.

The Department of Finance wanted microinsurance coverage among Filipinos to further climb to 50 million by 2022 by making these already cheap insurance products more available to farmers and those living in disaster-prone areas. INQ