No life and health insurance market fully inclusive

INSURANCE PRODUCTS lthough Japan’s life and health insurance was deemed accessible, insurers in the industry are found to be weak in terms of upskilling customers and innovating its underwriting spectrum.approaches to distribution and a high life insurance penetration rate.

Julien Descombes

However, they are somewhat weaker in providing skills development opportunities for insurance professionals, and innovation on the underwriting spectrum, creating a deficit in the availability dimension, Swiss Re said. L&H insurance markets in advanced countries also provide a “wide range of cover types and innovative product options” that suit their consumer’s needs more than those in emerging markets, added Swiss Re.

None fully inclusive

The Swiss Re Institute report, however, underscored that no L&H insurance market is “fully inclusive.” To make L&H insurance markets in both advanced and emerging countries inclusive, the Swiss Re Institute said that they must perform consumer-focused market research across all segments.

A study by the Swiss Re Institute noted that Japan has an aggregate inclusion score of 0.66, just behind the United States, based on a study that measured inclusivity of L&H markets on three dimensions: availability, accessibility, and affordability.

Japan was reportedly effective in making L&H insurance highly accessible to a broad spectrum of customers, evidenced by its novel

Other Asian countries that ranked in Swiss Re's top 10 for inclusive insurers included India in sixth place (0.52) and Indonesia in eighth (0.51). Consumers in advanced markets like Japan experience fewer difficulties accessing their L&H insurance services than those in emerging ones. “This is primarily driven by systemic factors like their financial markets being more established, leading to high levels of financial institution accountholding and credit usage,” Swiss Re stated in its report.