NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

As of 2014, 28 million Filipinos have micro-insurance coverage, according to the Insurance Commission (IC). The agency sees a continued growth in this segment as more Filipinos turn to micro-insurance for protection and financial security, especially for calamities.

“Micro-insurance has expanded as low-income Filipinos in the countryside realized that micro-insurance products can empower them. It can provide them protection and financial security especially in time of calamities and this was tested during typhoon Yolanda,” said IC Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc at the sidelines of Cebu Insurer’s Club Inc. (CIC) induction of officers last Friday.

Dooc noted over 140,000 household in the affected provinces in the Visayas were paid from their micro-insurance coverage. Although, the amount paid was meager at the range of P5,000 to P10,000, Dooc said this enabled the typhoon victims to buy light housing materials to replace their damaged houses.

“It is a lot better than receiving a bag of relief worth P500. More importantly, getting insurance proceeds preserve the dignity of an individual because insurance benefits don’t come as dole outs,” he said.

Micro-insurance is an insurance product priced at between five to 7.5 percent of the minimum daily wage, while benefits amount to no more than 500 times the daily minimum wage.

CIC’s new president Rosario Gejon said the organization will be a staunch advocate of micro-insurance by holding activities like basic non-life insurance seminar, symposium to universities, and tapping local government and non-government organizations in conducting insurance literacy programs to the grassroots level.