THE Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life) is providing a two-person-coverage health and protection plan with Active Joint Critical Protect. Currently the largest life-insurance company in the Philippines, it is the first in the market to offer such product.
Philam Life Chief Marketing Officer Leo Tan said the insurance offers a unique and convenient way to keep an individual and a relative—whether a spouse, a sibling, a parent or a child—protected from any untoward events.
Active Joint Protect covers most common covered critical illnesses, including heart attack, stroke and cancer.
The policy specifically includes an accelerated death benefit, which means that the coverage is claimed on a first-to-die or first-to-be-diagnosed basis. In this arrangement, the benefit will be paid if any of the following happens: critical illness diagnosis of any of the two people covered; or death of any of the two people covered.
It is a 10-year term plan that automatically renews every 10 years until age 65 to allow coverage until age 75. This translates to the first 10 years being protected, and, barring a critical illness or a death claim, will continue to cover a person for the succeeding 10 at an adjusted premium rate. Renewal will continue every 10 years.
Philam Life Brand Ambassadors Solenn Heussaff, Nico Bolzico and Mond Gutierrez led the launch of the insurance plan on September 13 in Makati. When asked as to who they will include in their coverage, they said:
“Chard [actor Richard Gutierrez], being my twin, is the closest, most important person in the world to me. And if there’s any way I can take care of him, then I will,” said Mond.
Solenn, on the other hand, said: “I love my mom and there’s not much I can do for her at this stage. But with this new product from Philam Life, I can do my part to make her worry less about getting sick in the future.”
Nico added, “I don’t have to tell you guys how much I love my wife. And while there are millions of ways that I’ve shown this, preparing for the unforeseen future makes me breathe easier every single day.”
More than protection, the joint life-insurance plan also provides a health initiative powered by the Philam Vitality wellness program, which encourages healthy living by giving incentives to policy holders for knowing and improving their health, at the same time boosting the plan coverage by up to 50 percent as they live healthier.
“Back then, the insurance industry usually talked about dying and our promise was, if you die, we pay you. But the conversation has changed and we now talk about living better,” said Philam Life Head of Branding and Communications Bernadette Chincuanco.
She explained that the Philam Vitality program, as well as the Live Better campaign, was based on Philam Life’s parent company and Hong Kong-based AIA Group’s Healthy Living Index 2016 research study. “It says that Filipinos have a high level of awareness when it comes to the importance of living healthy. The [problem] is we don’t take action.”
Tan added to this that, 90 percent of Filipinos are concerned about the expenses of getting sick, but the majority of them don’t have life protection and health coverage.
The life insurer emphasized that the country currently has a protection gap of around P1.5 trillion, and premium income in life insurance only amounts to 1.3 percent of local gross domestic product.
He said, “Simply put, if something happens to me as a bread winner in the family, my family is not assured if they can enjoy the same lifestyle that they are accustomed to. In Philam Life, what we want to do is to address that gap.”
“We at Philam Life always put our customers first and strive to innovate with products that address their needs,” Tan concluded.