Sunstar Cebu
By Jeandie O. Galolo
Saturday, November 30, 2013
WHILE only a small percentage of Filipinos has availed of insurance due to high premium payments, the take-up is expected to increase as financial institutions and insurance providers offer micro-insurance.
In a seminar organized by the Department of Finance- National Credit Council and the Insurance Commission (IC) in Cebu last Wednesday, IC Deputy Commissioner Ferdinand George Florendo said millions of poor Filipinos will be encouraged to avail themselves of micro-insurance.
This will grant them protection for P35 per day, or not more than 7.5 percent of the current minimum wage.
Micro-insurance offers protection against death, accidents, illnesses, fires, calamities and other contingent events.
Although micro-insurance was introduced in the country in 2006, Florendo said there are still a lot of Filipinos who have not insured themselves.
Out Of the 25 million Filipinos identified as poor, only 2.9 million of them have some kind of risk protection or are covered by insurance products from informal insurance schemes. The low number is due to the lack of awareness of insurance and low financial literacy level among the low-income sector.
Florendo said that with a number of institutions like insurance companies, mutual benefit associations and cooperatives around the country offering micro-insurance, it is expected that more Filipinos will insure themselves.
More than 100,000 residents
DOF-NCC Director Joselito Almario said there are a total of 54 institutions in the country that offer 84 types of micro-insurance policies.
One of the insurance providers that offer micro-insurance is the Climbs and General Insurance Cooperative that offer both life and non-life protection.
Through its non-life division general manager Sanie Dosdos, who also attended the seminar last Wednesday, Climbs distributed its calamity assistance benefits to over 100,000 residents in Region 8 a few days after typhoon Yolanda wrecked their properties.
P100M projected
Dosdos said the claim is at P4,000 per policyholder. However, instead of handing them the cash, Climbs partnered with a hardware based in Ormoc City to provide the affected policyholders P4,000 worth of housing materials to help them in rebuilding their houses.
An estimated total of P100 million will be distributed after all calamity assistance benefits are claimed.
For the life insurance policyholders, Dosdos said they have not yet distributed the claims because of the difficulties in identifying the dead. He said an average of P100,000 can be claimed per policyholder, but the amount still depends on the amount of loans they availed of from partner cooperatives.
Climbs is a 42-year-old insurance provider with more than 2,000 partner-cooperatives nationwide.
“We have been offering micro-insurance ever since but we call them grassroots insurance,” said Dosdos.
Micro-insurance, like micro-finance, is considered an important contributor to the national poverty alleviation strategy.
“Micro-finance institutions are there to provide for their (the poor’s) current needs, to help them get out of poverty, but if something happens to them, they’re back to being poor,” said Florendo.
Micro-insurance benefits are pegged at P5,000 to P20,000.
Farmers, fishermen and vendors account for a big share of the micro-insurance market.
Florendo added that other countries look up to the Philippines for its micro-insurance framework, like the National Strategy for Micro-insurance and the Regulatory Framework for Micro-insurance launched in 2010.
By Jeandie O. Galolo
Saturday, November 30, 2013
WHILE only a small percentage of Filipinos has availed of insurance due to high premium payments, the take-up is expected to increase as financial institutions and insurance providers offer micro-insurance.
In a seminar organized by the Department of Finance- National Credit Council and the Insurance Commission (IC) in Cebu last Wednesday, IC Deputy Commissioner Ferdinand George Florendo said millions of poor Filipinos will be encouraged to avail themselves of micro-insurance.
This will grant them protection for P35 per day, or not more than 7.5 percent of the current minimum wage.
Micro-insurance offers protection against death, accidents, illnesses, fires, calamities and other contingent events.
Although micro-insurance was introduced in the country in 2006, Florendo said there are still a lot of Filipinos who have not insured themselves.
Out Of the 25 million Filipinos identified as poor, only 2.9 million of them have some kind of risk protection or are covered by insurance products from informal insurance schemes. The low number is due to the lack of awareness of insurance and low financial literacy level among the low-income sector.
Florendo said that with a number of institutions like insurance companies, mutual benefit associations and cooperatives around the country offering micro-insurance, it is expected that more Filipinos will insure themselves.
More than 100,000 residents
DOF-NCC Director Joselito Almario said there are a total of 54 institutions in the country that offer 84 types of micro-insurance policies.
One of the insurance providers that offer micro-insurance is the Climbs and General Insurance Cooperative that offer both life and non-life protection.
Through its non-life division general manager Sanie Dosdos, who also attended the seminar last Wednesday, Climbs distributed its calamity assistance benefits to over 100,000 residents in Region 8 a few days after typhoon Yolanda wrecked their properties.
P100M projected
Dosdos said the claim is at P4,000 per policyholder. However, instead of handing them the cash, Climbs partnered with a hardware based in Ormoc City to provide the affected policyholders P4,000 worth of housing materials to help them in rebuilding their houses.
An estimated total of P100 million will be distributed after all calamity assistance benefits are claimed.
For the life insurance policyholders, Dosdos said they have not yet distributed the claims because of the difficulties in identifying the dead. He said an average of P100,000 can be claimed per policyholder, but the amount still depends on the amount of loans they availed of from partner cooperatives.
Climbs is a 42-year-old insurance provider with more than 2,000 partner-cooperatives nationwide.
“We have been offering micro-insurance ever since but we call them grassroots insurance,” said Dosdos.
Micro-insurance, like micro-finance, is considered an important contributor to the national poverty alleviation strategy.
“Micro-finance institutions are there to provide for their (the poor’s) current needs, to help them get out of poverty, but if something happens to them, they’re back to being poor,” said Florendo.
Micro-insurance benefits are pegged at P5,000 to P20,000.
Farmers, fishermen and vendors account for a big share of the micro-insurance market.
Florendo added that other countries look up to the Philippines for its micro-insurance framework, like the National Strategy for Micro-insurance and the Regulatory Framework for Micro-insurance launched in 2010.
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