Microinsurance premiums up 14% in 2022, says regulator

Micro-insurance companies collected a total of P11.53 billion worth of premiums in 2022, surging by 14 percent from P10.12 billion in 2021.

According to the Insurance Commission (IC), the number of lives insured under micro-insurance products correspondingly increased by 7.5 percent to 57.75 million in 2022 from 53.65 million insured lives the year before.

“The increases in collected premiums and the number of insured lives [were attributed] to the increasing public awareness of the necessity of having affordable insurance products,” the IC said in a statement.

Micro-insurance refers to insurance products that can be purchased at low premiums, which should not be more than 7.5 percent of the current daily minimum wage in Metro Manila.

Such products include micro preneed products such as micro-memorial, education, pension; micro-life and health insurance; and micro-agricultural insurance.

The IC actively promotes micro-insurance among low-income earners, as a means to prepare for emergencies that can drain resources, such as deaths, injury and damage to property or livelihood.

The IC said many of those who buy micro-insurance are daily wage earners, such as drivers, ambulant vendors and factory workers.

Earlier, the commission urged all industry players to tap new technologies to provide Filipinos with better access to insurance.

lnsurance Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado said that the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters such as typhoons has been attributed to climate change.

In the Philippines, these natural disasters result in billions of pesos in damage to property and livelihood, and thousands of injuries and deaths.

“As a proven risk and loss transfer mechanism, insurance plays a critical role in improving our resilience against extreme weather events and other natural calamities that are worsening due to climate change,” Regalado said.

Pursuant to the government’s push for digitalization and financial inclusion, Regalado urged summit participants to discuss how new technologies can be tapped to increase insurance coverage among Filipinos.

Citing results of the 2021 Financial lnclusion Survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the IC said less than half or only 48 percent of adult Filipinos have some form of insurance coverage. INQ