Most Malaysians are aware of the importance of life and health insurance coverage but are put off by the premiums charged. Almost 70% of respondents to a survey on insurance coverage said they wanted more affordable premiums.
The online survey of 1,505 people was conducted by the financial and utility products comparison site, iMoney Group, and The Edge. The Edge reported that concerns over affordability in this survey seemed to mirror that of Bank Negara’s 2015 Financial Capability and Inclusion Demand Side survey that found unaffordability was the main reason people did not purchase life insurance policies or allowed them to lapse.
According to Bank Negara’s Financial Stability and Payment Systems Report 2016, only 4% of those in the lower-income group, or the B40 households, have some form of life insurance or family takaful coverage.
Surprisingly, 87.3% of respondents said they had some sort of insurance coverage. This, The Edge reported, was way above Malaysia’s insurance penetration rate of around 55%, according to Bank Negara Malaysia’s data.
This could probably be attributed to the fact that the survey concentrated on urban areas, with two out of three respondents being from Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Also, the report said, most of the respondents, being familiar with iMoney Group, were probably among those more inclined to research financial products online.
The Edge reported that although 45.8% felt they were adequately insured, 86.2% said they would increase their insurance coverage in the near future.
The survey found that 42.7% of people would buy more insurance if they could afford to spend more on premiums while another 20.2% would do so because they expect the price of healthcare to increase in the future.
According to the report, 67.4% said having insurance was “extremely important”. Only 17.3% felt insurance was “not very important”.
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