Sunday, January 21, 2007 January is microinsurance month
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed Proclamation 1212 declaring January 2007 "and every year thereafter as Microinsurance Month" and appointed the Insurance Commission (IC) and the Department of Finance (DOF) as the lead agencies and enjoining all in the government to "initiate and participate" in various activities.
Part of the activities is the launching of microinsurance month on the IC's 58th anniversary celebration at the IC compound in UN Avenue. Actually, road shows have started when the Insurance Commissioner conducted dialogues last December in Isabela and Nueva Ecija. She, with a team will be in Virac, Catanduanes for the formation of a new Micro Mutual Benefit Association and also to help the victims of typhoon Reming by distributing some relief goods coming from the different insurance companies and the Insurance Commission itself.
Microinsurance refers to insurance business activity providing specific insurance products that meet the needs of the disadvantaged for risk protection and relief against distress and misfortune, such as accident insurance, life insurance and burial benefits whose premiums are made affordable to daily wage earners and other self-employed who earn less than the minimum wage.
These are generally offered by insurance companies or mutual benefit associations which are all regulated and supervised by the Insurance Commission. The IC has adopted a campaign called Segurado, which stands for Solvency/Stability, Efficiency/Effectiveness, Good Governance, Understandable Coverage/Benefits, Risk Management, Accessibility/Affordability, Distribution/Development and Dividends and Outreach, to strengthen the micro-insurers.
IC Commissioner Evangeline Escobillo stressed that this was their agency's response to the President's unwavering campaign against poverty. "We will address poverty by giving the disadvantaged sector preferential access to social protection and low cost financial safety nets in partnership with the insurance industry," Escobillo said.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said microinsurance is one of the key factors for the government's micro-finance efforts to succeed. "Institutions offering loans to small entrepreneurs are more confident if the borrower has some degree of insurance protection." The DOF also sees the declaration of January as Microinsurance Month as a strong step to fighting poverty,” he added. (Press release)
