IC OKs 3 new life insurance products
MANILA, Philippines – The Insurance Commission (IC) has approved three new gender-specific life insurance products, expanding the range of insurance plans designed to address health risks that disproportionately affect men or women.
In its latest advisory, the regulator said the newly approved products brought the total number of gender-specific insurance offerings to 18 life insurance products, alongside two nonlife insurance products and two health maintenance organization (HMO) products approved as of 2026.
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“By offering benefits that are tailored to specific demographic and health profiles, insurers are better positioned to deliver comprehensive, relevant and accessible financial protection solutions,” the IC said.
Two of the newly approved products were from AIA Philippines, which include the Breast Cancer Protect Life, a term insurance plan that provides coverage against breast cancer.
The other is the Gender Specific Cancer Benefit Rider, an optional add-on to the company’s AIA Critical Protect Plus plan that provides an additional benefit equivalent to 25 percent of the major critical illness face amount if the insured is diagnosed with a covered gender-specific illness.
BPI AIA, meanwhile, also secured approval for its Gender Specific Cancer Benefit Rider, which provides the same 25-percent additional benefit as an optional add-on to its BPI AIA MultiCare Protect plan.
Existing gender-specific life insurance products include three each from Insular Life, Manulife Philippines, Manulife China Bank Life Assurance Corp. and Sun Life Philippines, two from Pru Life UK and one from Sun Life Grepa.
READ: Philippine HMOs post 41% net income jump in Q1
The two approved HMO products, meanwhile, are offered by Insular Health Care.
Notably, most of the approved products focus on cancer and maternity-related coverage.
“All regulated entities are encouraged to continue developing [and] enhancing products that incorporate gender-sensitive features, supported by sex-disaggregated data to ensure relevance, accuracy and sustainability,” the IC said.
The latest approvals came as the insurance industry continued to post growth in the first quarter of the year.
Latest data from the IC showed insurers recorded a 2.95-percent increase in net income to P15.8 billion, while total premium income climbed 13.37 percent to P141 billion.
HMOs, meanwhile, posted a 41-percent jump in net income to P819 million during the same period.
Insurance penetration likewise improved to 2.04 percent, surpassing the IC’s 2-percent target and improving from 1.89 percent a year earlier. INQ
