Minimum wage earners can now be insured by availing of the national government’s microinsurance program.
To avail of a microinsurance policy, a person would only need to pay a maximum daily premium of P20 to get a maximum guaranteed benefit coverage of P200,000, said Ma. Piedad Geron, consultant of the Asian Development Bank, who is one of the movers of the Insurance Commission’s microinsurance program.
“With that I think people will find it easier to avail of a formal insurance, plus we work with the organizations like cooperatives. They (minimum wage earners) know the people in these organizations and they can avail of policies in groups,” said Geron.
She said the one-pagecontracts were also made easier to understand so that people could immediately know what they were availing of.
“There are products for calamities like typhoons, floods, fire, earthquake and lightning. We have a product designed called Bahay-Buhay-Kabuhayan, which will fit the specific needs of everyone,” said Geron.
As of January this year, the Insurance Commission has already issued 3.5 million certificates and policies that showed a 14 percent increase based on last year’s number of certificates issued, said lawyer Cesar Olaer, Insurance Commission director for Cebu District.
info drive
Aside from making the microinsurance easier to avail and affordable for the lower income bracket, the agencies and groups involved are also embarking on a more aggressive information campaign, especially with the national government’s target of insuring at least 20 percent of the total population by 2020.
The campaign involves road shows and developing local microinsurance advocates representing legislators, government regulatory agencies, national agencies, local government units, insurance providers, intermediaries, support institutions, donors or other development partners and existing and potential clients.
“We will be visiting 16 regions for the road show to really inform and educate our brothers and sisters about microinsurance and how it can help them especially during calamities,” said Joselito S. Almario, director of the Department of Finance National Credit Council.
The Insurance Commission and the Department of Finance will get a lot of help in implementing the program from their partners—German International Cooperation-Microinsurance Innovations Program for Social Security (GIZ-MIPSS) and the Asian Development Bank-Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (ADB-JFPR).
Currently, there are already products being offered as microinsurance both life and non-life by about 35 insurance companies and organizations.
“Nineteen of these insurance providers are major insurance companies while 15 are from mutual benefit associations now offering microinsurance products,” said Olaer.
nat’l strategy
Almario said that while the country ranked high among other Asian countries for microfinance, we failed at the microinsurance level.
“We see this as a national strategy for poverty alleviation so we are urging everyone, especially those from the lower income group, to get a formal protection from risk. Hence, we are now working with formal insurance institutions and organizations for the program,” said Almario.
As of January this year, only 11 percent of the total population of 94 million are insured and majority are from those in higher income groups, said Olaer.
Based on a Department of Finance data, 30 percent or 28.2 million of the total 94 million population are below the poverty line.
Almario said this would be where the program would focus on especially on the awareness on microinsurance.
“There are various reasons why those who earn minimun income don’t get insured. One, they think it is very expensive and only those with higher income can afford it. And so, they develop the bahala na attitude. But if they’d only learn about microinsurance, I’m sure they will be willing to get themselves insured,” said Almario.