Some 28 million Filipinos have protection from so-called contingent events in the form of a microinsurance product in the fourth quarter last year, representing an 8-percent increase the Insurance Commission attributed to the rise in members and dependents of microinsurance mutual benefit associations (MI-MBAs).
According to Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa, the number of Filipinos covered by some form of microinsurance totaled 28.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, from only 26.3 million in the third quarter.
Year-on-year, this translated to a decline of 5.3 percent, compared to 30 million in 2015.
Based on the quarterly statistical report on the microinsurance industry as of December 31, 2016, 61 percent of the total protected by microinsurance were members and dependents of MI-MBAs.
Microinsurance contracts typically involve payouts no larger than P10,000, which may seem paltry but means the world to those without contingent cover of any form or kind.
The life-insurance sector covered some 8.59 million individuals, or 30 percent of total, while the nonlife sector accounted for 9 percent, or 2.54 million others.
In terms of premium production, the microinsurance industry posted a 36-percent increase amounting to P5.41 billion as of the end of December 2016, compared to only P3.97 billion a quarter earlier.
Based on the sector’s performance report as of the fourth quarter of 2016, the MBAs accounted for 54 percent of the total premium income amounting to P2.90 billion, followed by the life sector, with 35 percent, or P1.88 billion, and the nonlife sector, with 11 percent totaling P631 million.
“There is a continuous increase in the net premium written by the microinsurance industry. From 2012 to 2016, the average year-on-year increase in net premium income was 16 percent. In fact, the same increased by 20 percent, from P4.5 billion in 2015, to P5.4 billion in 2016,” Funa said.
The MBAs remain the leader in the microinsurance industry in terms of the number of lives covered and premium production, according to the IC.
But private insurers are now eyeing to gain more from the sale of microinsurance products.