The Insurance Commission (IC) looks to boost the so-called microinsurance penetration rate to 50 percent over the next five years under President Duterte.
According to Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc, the IC targets to increase the penetration rate for microinsurance in line with the vision to insure 80 percent of the population against risks by the year 2020. This was bared at the National Pilipino Protektado Day sponsored by Cebuana Lhuillier on Thursday at the Solaire Resort and Casino hotel in Pasay.
“Our microinsurance landscape is recognized as a frontrunner in the insurance industry worldwide. But we are not stopping there. We aim to increase our market penetration to more than 30 percent at present to 50 percent within the next three to five years. With 102 million Filipinos, we hope that, within the administration of President Duterte, we will hit 50-percent market penetration,” Dooc said.
He noted the microinsurance penetration rate in the country has increased over the years starting in 2009. Microinsurance penetration stood at 32 percent in 2016 and Dooc is confident that raising the target penetration rate to 50 percent will be met.
“This is not surprising, because in 2009 our penetration rate was at 12 percent, and then it went up to 29 percent in 2014 and last year it was over 30 percent. More than 30 percent of Filipinos are now provided with insurance cover so we have long abandoned our vision 2020. Meaning, 20 percent of Filipinos should have insurance by 2020. We have long surpassed that. It’s only 2016 and we have reached over 30-percent cover,” he explained.
Dooc said collaboration with the private sector has helped the IC attain its goals and should continue to do so moving forward. Cebuana Lhuillier has worked with the IC by providing more insurance cover to more citizens in the country.
“To be able to do that, we strengthened our collaboration with the private sector,” according to Dooc.
Jonathan D. Batangan, general manager at Cebuana Lhuillier, said their microinsurance offering called the Cebuana Plus Gold was sold to some 6 million Filipinos thus far. He said the company earned the trust and confidence of the people because they pay nsurance claims right away.
“It was sold to almost 6 million Filipinos and we’ve settled P160 million in claims to date. The idea is to pay the claims right away,” Batangan added. He also said they already sold more than half, or 9.5 million, policies in only the first six months this year of the 18 million sold in 2015.