First-year premiums (FYP) of spillover insurance policies surged 261 percent from a year earlier to NT$3.08 billion (US$110.13 million) from NT$834 million in the first six months of the year, with the number of policies sold expanding 507 percent to 323,950 as consumers boosted their heath coverage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data released by the Financial Supervisory Commission on Tuesday showed.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Nan Shan Life Insurance (南山人壽) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) ranked first, second and third respectively in sales of spillover insurance during this period, the data showed.
Spillover insurance, named after the “spillover effect” that occurs when events in one sector affect events in another, incentivizes policyholders to improve their health or exercise regularly, with rewards such as premium cuts or bonuses.
Walker-type policies that give policyholders bonuses for implementing a walking regimen continued to dominate, with FYPs surging 94 percent annually to NT$1.44 billion from NT$741 million, for a 46 percent share of the spillover insurance market, the data showed.
The nation’s six major life insurers, which offered 33 types of walker policies, sold a total of 44,636 such policies from January to last month, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
“Health-check-type” policies registered the fastest growth in the first half of the year, with their combined FYPs jumping almost 10 times from NT$8.9 million a year earlier to NT$861 million, which equaled a market share of 28.6 percent, the data showed.
Unlike the walker-type insurance, the health-check-type insurance does not reward policyholders for walking regularly, but for showing satisfactory health examination results, life insurers’ data showed.
Taking the most hot-selling health-check-type policy offered by Nan Shan Life for example, rewards are given for waist measurements of less than 80cm for women and less than 90cm for men, systolic and diastolic blood pressures of under 130/85mm of mercury, and fasting blood sugar levels of less than 100mg per deciliter (mg/dL), the insurer’s data showed.
The six major insurers offered 23 types of health-check insurance, selling 50,187 policies in the first half compared with 13,165 in the same period a year earlier, the data showed.
The rapid growth could be attributed to Nan Shan Life launching five new policies with cash-back rewards in August last year, the data showed.
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