Total premiums collected by micro-insurance companies posted a double-digit growth in 2022 on increased public awareness of the need for affordable insurance products.
Latest data from the Insurance Commission showed that micro- insurance companies collected total premiums amounting to P11.53 billion, or 14 percent higher than P10.12 billion collected in 2021.
The number of lives insured under micro-insurance products also increased 7.64 percent to 57.75 million in 2022 from 53.65 million in 2021.
“The increase in collected premiums and the number of insured lives to the increasing public awareness of the necessity of having affordable insurance products,” the Insurance Commission said in a statement.
The agency actively promotes micro-insurance among low-income earners, as a means to prepare for emergencies that can drain resources, such as deaths, injury, and damage to property or livelihood.
Micro-insurance products include micro pre-need (like micro-memorial, education, pension), micro-life and health insurance and micro-agricultural insurance.
Many Filipinos who buy micro-insurance are daily wage earners, such as drivers, ambulant vendors and factory workers. Micro-insurance refers to insurance products that can be purchased at low premiums.
The premiums should not be more than 7.5 percent of the current daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, computed on a daily basis.