Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) yesterday inked an agreement with Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (家扶基金會), launching the nation’s first micro-insurance policy to provide accidental injury protection to financially disadvantaged people aged between 15 and 65.
“The policy will provide life security to our members, many of whom are single parents,” Vera Chen (陳美君), director of the fund’s public relations division, said on the sidelines of a signing ceremony.
The charity group currently supports 21,000 households nationwide. Chen said some 8,000 households would greatly benefit from the policy.
To reduce operating costs, Cathay Life will not accept individual policyholders but instead take on policyholders in groups whose premiums exceed NT$5,000, senior vice president Liu Ta-kun (劉大坤) said yesterday.
Micro-insurance policyholders are required to pay a fixed premium of NT$6.58 per policy for coverage of NT$10,000 or NT$197 for a policy with a maximum benefit of NT$300,000.
Cathay Life has also entered talks with other charity groups to expand its base of policyholders, Liu said.
“We do not aim to make a profit from the micro policy, but we do hope to at least break even,” he said.
In keeping with regulations, individuals who earn less than NT$250,000 a year or dual-income families with annual earnings of less than NT$500,000 will be eligible to purchase life and accident insurance policies under the nation’s micro-insurance program.
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