According to Mr. Phung Ba Khang, Head of Health & Product Division at Manulife Vietnam, life insurance plays a role in reducing the cost burden, medical costs, and products that customers can choose to minimize costs.
The need to protect people’s health has increased significantly in recent years. Besides the impact of the epidemic, what factors are driving this demand even more strongly?
Since Covid-19 appeared, people’s health concerns have increased significantly, and are expected to continue to be at a high level in the near future. Premium health insurance packages are continuously “upgraded” in the people’s idle money spending list, making Vietnam one of the leading countries in terms of the percentage of consumers spending a lot on purpose. this.
Our latest Manulife Asia Care Survey (published in March 2022) shows that the percentage of Vietnamese who plan to buy insurance within the next 12 months is 91% higher than the regional average.
What is more remarkable is that insurance for critical illnesses and hospital expenses are at the top of the most interesting products. This is understandable in the context that more and more people are diagnosed with serious diseases, and the level of medical inflation in Vietnam has increased significantly in recent times.
Can you tell us more about medical inflation in Vietnam? In your opinion, what causes this level of inflation to happen so quickly in Vietnam?
To put it simply, medical inflation is an increase in the prices of medical products and services and health care.
Data from the World Bank show that per capita health expenditure in Vietnam has continuously increased rapidly over the past years.
Statistics of the Ministry of Health also show that in Vietnam, the rate of out-of-pocket payments from health service users is still high, at 43%, twice the level recommended by the World Health Organization, twice – 2.5 times that of developed countries. High out-of-pocket spending even causes many families to become impoverished, or fall back into poverty after treatment.
This has prompted people to look for suitable options to reduce the burden of medical costs when hospitalized.
Vietnam’s economy is in a period of rapid development, leading to higher health inflation than other countries in the world.
In addition, the aging of the population leads to greater health risks, which means higher medical costs. According to a study by the National Hospital of Geriatrics, medical expenses for the elderly are 7-10 times higher than that of young people because the elderly use up to 50% of the total amount of medicine.
Meanwhile, the public health system is overloaded, many people have to seek private medical services, leading to a higher level of medical expenses.
With such a reality, what role does the life insurance industry play in helping to reduce medical inflation and help people reduce their cost burden?
Life insurance products can help ensure a solid financial source in some unfortunate events such as serious illness, total disability, or death.
By joining life insurance early, participants can rest assured that they will receive treatment at high-class medical facilities, with modern treatment methods and a team of highly qualified doctors.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Finance, in 2020 alone, the total amount of compensation and insurance payments is estimated at VND 45,675 billion (up 4.1% compared to 2019), of which non-personal insurance businesses life insurance is estimated to pay 20,560 billion VND, life insurance companies are estimated to pay 25,115 billion VND.
What specific solutions have Manulife Vietnam implemented to help reduce the cost burden for customers, sir?
Wishing to share the financial pressures with customers, give patients and their families peace of mind, and focus on the healing process, Manulife Vietnam has launched a variety of products, such as serious medical insurance. , Medicaid insurance, health care insurance, death or total permanent disability insurance.
Most recently, Manulife Vietnam has launched two new generation complementary insurance products – Extended Critical Illness and Extended Medical Benefit – with the goal of accompanying and supporting customers in the face of health risks. strong.
Manulife has always been oriented to be a pioneer in addressing the practical needs of customers – especially in the elderly segment when it comes to concerns about health protection, two new complimentary insurance products of Manulife are expanded in coverage. Joining age up to 69 years old and full protection up to 85 years old. At the same time, with the first Special Medical insurance benefit on the market, customers will be paid benefits based on certain criteria for treatment or surgery without having to meet the disease definition.
In addition to adding new features to the insurance market for the first time, Manulife continues to enhance the attractiveness of existing benefits. With the supplementary product Extended Medicaid, Manulife increases the daily allowance in the case of a long hospital stay (over 6 days) or an intensive care unit stay (up to 4 times the allowance). during a regular hospital stay). Meanwhile, the Extended Critical Illness supplement product supports up to 325% of the life insurance premium for 134 serious illnesses in early, mid, late stages, and serious illnesses by gender. count.
Moreover, the payment of benefits when the customer dies from the age of 70 onwards, contributes to bringing peace of mind to elderly customers when both receiving health care and leaving a part of their inheritance. in the same complementary product.
It is expected that in 2022, Manulife will continue to launch new protection solutions suitable for different customer segments, contributing to reducing the financial burden for Vietnamese families.
Thank you, sir!
Source: Nhip song kinh te