STOCK PHOTO
Forty-one percent of Filipinos who were recently surveyed revealed that their medical spendings are out-of-pocket, highlighting the huge portion of the population that has no sufficient health insurance coverage amid the high cost of these expenses.
This is one of the findings of Manulife Philippines’ recent survey entitled “In Wellness and in Health” which polled 1,000 respondents in an attempt to study the spending patterns of Filipinos when it comes to their health needs.
“This figure, over the years, we’ve seen it declining, which is good news,” Manulife Philippines president and chief executive officer Rahul Hora said during the reveal of the findings of the study recently at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.
READ: 30-year study: Households, not gov’t, shoulder bulk of health spending
Hora said the figure reached as high as 52 percent a few years back, with the numbers hovering within 41 percent to 50 percent since then.
“This out-of-pocket expense is on the higher side, which means that they have no they have little or no level of insurance coverage to cover for these medical expenses,” he said.
He also said that 82 percent of these people source it out of their savings, highlighting the high number of individuals which cut it directly from their reserved funds.
Meanwhile, 26 percent get it from their health maintenance organizations (HMOs) while 22 percent get it from loans provided by friends or relatives.
For those that do set aside funds, an average P62,000 were found to be set by Filipinos for future medical expenses.
Individuals aged 18 to 29, the youngest demographic category in the survey, were found to be saving P38,000, or nearly half, for future medical expenses.
Another important finding of the survey is that this youngest demographic category were also found to be getting sick at the highest rate, with 33 percent saying they fell sick 3.4 times in the last 12 months.
This number is comparatively higher to the oldest of the demographics, the 50 years old to 55 years old range, which reported being ill for 1.9 times in the same time frame.
The other categories, the 30 years old to 39 years old, as well as the 40 years old to 49 years old groups, reported being sick 2.7 and 2 times, respectively.
Asked for the implications of the findings that the youngest demographic reported getting sick more often, the Manulife executive said they have made this group of people their focus.
“We, as an insurance company, are always –through our product designs, through our communication strategies, through the propositions that we provide our customers—we are targeting this age bracket,” said Hora.
He also emphasized the importance of offering flexible terms for this age group, some of whom may not be as financially mature as those people in the other brackets.