Both life and nonlife insurers can issue health insurance policies. Together with the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) industry, they comprise the providers of private health insurance in the Philippines.
From the life insurers
For 2018, a total of 25,706 stand-alone health insurance policies were issued by life insurance companies. It insured a total of 745,800 lives at a generated premium income of P7 billion (P7,208,370,000). This means that most of the health insurance policies were group policies. For comparison, in 2017, a total of 17,406 health insurance policies were issued to indicate an increase of 47.68 percent from 2017 to 2018. In all, 605,309 lives were insured to indicate a 23.21-percent increase from 2017 to 2018. Finally, premium income in 2017 was P5.6 billion (P5,695,560,000) to indicate a 25.56- percent increase from 2017 to 2018.
The top 10 life companies providing health insurance (in terms of premium income) are: 1) United Coconut Planters Life—P3.55 billion (49.28 percent); 2) Asian Life—P2.53 billion (35.15 percent); 3) FWD Life Insurance—P336 million (4.67 percent); 4) Philippine AXA Life—P289 million (4.01 percent); 5) Insular Life—P204 million (2.83 percent); 6) Sunlife Grepa—P122 million (1.70 percent); 7) Fortune Life—P89 million (1.24 percent); 8) Pioneer Life—P38 million (0.53 percent); 9) BPI Philam—P20 million (0.28 percent); and 10) Philam Life—P13 million (0.18 percent). As can be seen, United Coconut Planters Life is the industry leader in health insurance with almost half of the premiums earned. Asian Life is at second place in 2018.
From the nonlife insurers
For 2018, a total of 121,209 stand-alone health insurance policies were issued by nonlife insurance companies. They insured a total of 302,081 lives at a generated premium income of P1.3 billion (P1,315,720,000). For comparison, in 2017, a total of 141,941 health insurance policies were issued to indicate a decrease of 14.61 percent from 2017 to 2018; and 527,795 lives were insured to indicate a 42.77 percent decrease from 2017 to 2018. Finally, premium income in 2017 was P1.9 billion (P1,988,420,000) to indicate a 33.83 percent decrease from 2017 to 2018.
Clearly, the life insurance sector leads the nonlife sector in health insurance.
The top 10 nonlife companies providing health insurance (in terms of premium income) are: 1) Pacific Cross Insurance (Blue Cross) —P783 million (59.53 percent); 2) Philippine British Assurance—P266 million (20.28 percent); 3) QBE Seaboard Insurance—P86.5 million (6.58 percent); 4) Paramount Life & General Insurance—P67.6 million (5.14 percent); 5) PGA Sompo—P27.6 million (2.11 percent); 6) Insurance Co. of North America—P24.5 million (1.86 percent); 7) New India Assurance—P21.9 million (1.67 percent); 8) FPG Insurance—P13 million (1 percent); 9) Prudential Guarantee—P13 million (1 percent); and 10) Pacific Union Insurance—P5.9 million (0.45 percent).
As can be seen, Pacific Cross (Blue Cross) is the industry leader in the nonlife health insurance with more than half of the premiums earned.
From the HMO industry
Since the regulation of the HMO industry was transferred to the Insurance Commission, the reporting of the number of persons covered by HMOs will only be started during the 2019 reporting period. The statistics gathered in 2018 pertained only to the Membership/ Enrollment Fees collected. It is the counterpart of premiums earned. For 2018, the total Membership Fees earned was P45.57 billion; certainly much more than the P8.5 billion in premium earned by both the life and nonlife sector combined.
The top 10 HMO companies for 2018 (in terms of Membership Fees) are: 1) Maxicare HealthCare—P13.8 billion (31.76 percent); 2) Intellicare—P11.8 billion (27.26 percent); 3) Medicard Philippines—P8.1 billion (18.77 percent); 4) Caritas Health Shield—P2.4 billion (5.53 percent); 5) Philhealth Care—P2.22 billion (5.10 percent); 6) Value Care Health System—P1.68 billion (3.88 percent); 7) Eastwest Health Care—P877 million (2.01 percent); 8) Avega Managed Care—P648 million (1.49 percent); 9) Insular Health Care—P433 million (0.99 percent); and 10) Pacific Cross Health Care—P250 million (0.57 percent).
Combined figures
IF we combine the total premiums generated by the life, nonlife, and HMO industry for health insurance, we can see an industry that is worth a total of P54.07 billion. This, however, pales in comparison to the total health expenditure in the country, which was estimated in 2017 at P684 billion.
Dennis B. Funa is the current insurance commissioner. Funa was appointed by President Duterte as the new insurance commissioner in December 2016. E-mail: dennisfuna@yahoo.com.