AIA to boost Sri Lanka’s low life insurance penetration with new brand promise
AIA insurance recently launched a fresh initiative to boost the low penetration levels in health insurance in Sri Lanka by changing the perception of life insurance, particularly among corporate employees, with its new brand promise aimed at helping Sri Lankans to live healthier, longer and better lives.
A key initiative of the strategy is the launch of ‘The Healthiest Workplace Survey’ in Sri Lanka, which would conduct for the first time in Sri Lanka a comprehensive survey of the health and wellbeing of employees around Asia-pacific, the top officials of AIA recently told media at an event held in Colombo.
Around 165 of Sri Lanka’s leading corporates have come onboard to participate in the survey and AIA plans to recognise the healthiest company in Sri Lanka at an award ceremony, which would be held later this year.
According to AIA, the survey has built on the success of Healthiest Workplace by AIA Vitality, which has surveyed employees and employers across several countries in Asia.
AIA Chief Marketing Officer, Nikhil Advani noted AIA Vitality has over 30,000 Sri Lankans enrolled and it has become immensely popular with corporate employees who AIA signs up through the “corporate wellness days”.
It overviews employees’ lifestyle, clinical indicators, mental health, stress and other areas concerned areas and each participating employee is also expected to receive a personal report a subsequent recommendation for areas of improvement.
“We believe in educating Sri Lankans in the work place about the health and wellness is a key part of our selling proposition and our proposition as a company and about us living our brand promise.
We have started working with Sri Lankan corporate on educating their staff, introducing vitality, introducing wellness days to them, so they can understand health is and start their converge earlier,” Advani said.
AIA CEO Pankaj Banerjee pointed out that recent demographic and social trends in Sri Lanka indicate the need for insurance companies to step into play a larger role for Sri Lankans to make better life choices.
“With a rapidly aging population, improving lifespan and more nuclear families the need for personal pensions has never been greater. As a responsible insurer, it is our role to educate people, help them plan and save so that our customers can indeed live life to the fullest in retirement.
Another dimension of what’s happening in Sri Lanka is that as people get wealthier, they aren’t necessarily getting healthier. We don’t exercise enough, smoke and drink too much alcohol and eat unhealthily. And as we’re living longer, the chances of us needing medical care only increase.” he said.
According to AIA, Sri Lanka’s health expenditure accounts for almost 4 percent of GDP in 2017 or US$2.5 billion equivalent to Rs 350 billion. However, almost 80 percent of health costs were self funded as Sri Lankans remains reluctant to utilise public hospitals and as most population remains uninsured.
“We would like to see more penetration of health insurance to market, so people remains financially more protective,” AIA official said.
Elaborating AIA’S new strategy, Banerjee said: “As an Insurer, AIA wants to step in to make a positive change to the way customers view insurance. We want to change the ‘you die- we pay’ model of insurance to ‘we are here to help you live life to the fullest, with the people you love.’ It is better for us as the insurer, it is better for the customer and ultimately, it is better for the community.”
The 2018 AIA Healthy Living Index (HLI) survey found that Sri Lanka was facing a critical illness ‘finance gap’ where savings, current levels of insurance and government health provisions may not be enough to pay for the treatment for critical illnesses (such as cancer, heart disease).
According to the survey, 41 percent of respondents expressed their worry about having to financially cope with these serious illnesses.
AIA Deputy CEO Upul Wijesinghe highlighted as Sri Lanka’s medical costs are increasing 7 percent, the planning remains crucial for them to fund these future medical expenditures.
“A brief hospitalisation for flu costs about Rs. 100,000, a bypass surgery about Rs. 750,000, a kidney transplant approximately Rs. 1.5 million and the cost of cancer treatment in an infinite amount. With people living an average of 20 years after retiring, how can retirees ensure that they can sustain the lifestyle they are used to along with the inevitable medical bills, when there is no sustainable monthly income? Fifty percent of retirees in Sri Lanka depend on their children but we can all agree that that’s not the ideal situation” he elaborated.
Wijesinghe emphasised that AIA product portfolio has been specifically designed to cater to these crucial needs of Sri Lankans.
“Our flagship health product AIA Health Protector has been designed to help our customers focus on getting better and not have to worry about finances. It is currently the most comprehensive health cover available in the market and not only covers 37 critical illnesses, 250 plus surgeries, hospital expenses but also allows Sri Lankan’s to secure the best medical treatment world-wide,” he said.
The other core products of AIA includes: AIA Smart Pensions, Corporate wellness and AIA Vitality. “AIA Smart Pensions is another great example of how we’re ensuring a better life for the many Sri Lankans that trust their retirement savings with us. Packed with features, it is designed to maximise your savings when you are ready to retire. AIA Smart Pensions lets customers replace their monthly pay cheques with monthly pension cheques that then increase each month to fight against inflation. And it guarantees the pension to your beneficiaries even if you aren’t around “he noted.
According to AIA officials, AIA has the third largest market share in Sri Lanka’s competitive life insurance market. AIA equipped with a strong distribution network covering the entire island, employing over 3,500 Wealth Planners and operating over 120 branch offices.