Hopefully this situation does not arise in the Philippines especially for Catastrophic Perils. An estimated 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California. (Justin Sullivan—Getty Images) Last year, Francis Bischetti said he learned that the annual cost of the homeowners policy he buys from Farmers Insurance for his Pacific Palisades home was going to soar from $4,500 to $18,000 — an amount he could not possibly afford. Neither could he get onto the California FAIR Plan, which provides fewer benefits, because he said he would have to cut down 10 trees around his roof line to lower the fire risk — something else the 55-year-old personal assistant found too costly to manage. So he decided he would do what's called "going bare" — not buying any coverage on his home in the community's El Medio neighborhood. He figured if he watered his property year round, that might be protection enough given its location south of Sunset Boulevard. It wasn't. The home he lived in for nearly all his life burned down Tuesday along with more than 10,000 other homes and structures damaged or destroyed in the worst fire event in the history of Los Angeles. Sixteen deaths have been confirmed countywide. "It was surrealistic," he said. "I’ve grown up and lived here off and on for 50 years. I’ve never in my entire time here experienced this." Farmers Insurance declined to comment, saying it does not discuss individual policyholders. A train wreck coming down the track' Bischetti was far from the only homeowner living in Pacific Palisades, Altadena or other fire-prone hillside neighborhoods who struggled to maintain their insurance amid sharply rising costs and the decision by many insurers to reduce their exposure to catastrophic wildfire claims by not renewing the policies of even longtime customers. Many fire victims reported that insurers had dropped their policies last year. The fires — expected to be among the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history — have deepened a crisis in the state's home insurance market that was already reeling before the devastation came. The state's largest home insurer, State Farm General, announced in March that it would not renew 30,000 homeowner and condominium policies — including 1,626 in Pacific Palisades — when they expired. Chubb and its subsidiaries stopped writing new policies for high-value homes with higher wildfire risk in 2021. Allstate has stopped writing new policies in 2022, and Tokio Marine America Insurance Co. and its subsidiary Trans Pacific Insurance Co. pulled out of the state last year, though Mercury Insurance offered to take their customers. Liberty Mutual was sued last month by a homeowner who accused the insurer of dropping her over a bogus claim that her roof had mold damage. “Driven by a desire to maximize profits, property casualty insurance companies ... have engaged in a troubling trend of dropping California homeowners’ insurance policies like flies,” said the complaint, filed in San Diego County Superior Court. A spokesperson for Liberty Mutual declined to comment on the litigation. The inability to get coverage is reflected in the number of policies picked up by California's FAIR Plan, which as of September had about 452,000 policies, up from a little over 203,000 four years ago. FAIR Plan's website says its claims exposure is nearly $6 billion in Pacific Palisades alone. "The situation has been a train wreck coming down the track for a while," said Rick Dinger, president of Crescenta Valley Insurance, an independent brokerage in Glendale. Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/lost-home-insurance-policies Source: yahoo.com

Unlock invaluable insights and network with industry peers by joining the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA). Mark your calendar for  11 March 2025 at the Isabela Ballroom, Lower Lobby, Makati Shangri-La, Manila . For non-bankers, non-insurers, solution providers, and vendors in the industry, enjoy a USD $100 discount when you use promo code  ABFIAPHPIRA100off . Register now! For non-bankers/insurers: https://asianbankingandfinance.net/product/asian-banking-finance-and-insurance-asia-summit-2025 For bankers/insurers: https://form.jotform.com/Bizcon/2025-abf-ia-summit--PH_delegate?utm_source=socmed&utm_medium=socmed&utm_campaign=ABFIASummit_PH_partnerPIRA_socmed

The General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ) has issued a report entitled "GENERAL INSURANCE IN JAPAN FACT BOOK 2023-2024". This Fact Book gives a concise picture of the business results of our member general insurance companies based on various statistical data compiled by the GIAJ. It also provides an overview of the systems, schemes and laws related to general insurance in Japan, as well as initiatives being taken by the GIAJ. We hope that the Fact Book helps you to obtain a better understanding of the Japanese general insurance market.

The Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth) has expanded the coverage of its benefit packages for heart diseases by as much as 1,629%. The enhanced benefit packages have come into effect from 2 January 2025. The details have been notified vide its circular 2024-0032 issued on 21 December 2024. Cardiovascular diseases are the top cause of death in the Philippines. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) during 2023 ischemic heart disease was the top killer with 85,192 cases or 19% of total deaths in the country during the period January – September 2023. Under the expanded scheme for inpatient admissions, Filipinos with ischemic heart disease — a condition caused by reduced blood flow to the heart — and acute myocardial infarction, or heart attacks, can now avail of increased coverage under two enhanced benefit packages. The reimbursement rate for percutaneous coronary intervention, a non-surgical procedure to clear blocked arteries and remove plaque buildup, has been raised to PHP523,853 ($9021) — about 17 times higher than the previous coverage of PHP30,300. Patients may avail of this procedure at any of the 70 accredited Cath labs in the country. The second enhanced package covers fibrinolysis, a treatment for dissolving blood clots. It now has a case rate of PHP133,500, or a 341% increase from the previous amount of PHP30,290. The state insurer also increased the benefit package for emergency medical services with coordinated referral and interfacility transfers to PHP21,900 and cardiac rehabilitation to PHP66,140. The total value of the benefit packages covers both the payment to the healthcare institution and the fees for healthcare professionals. Benefit packages also cover services such as emergency care, medications, laboratory tests, medical supplies, equipment and other administrative fees. They will apply to accredited public and private health facilities classified as levels 1 to 3, equipped to provide the necessary medical treatments and procedures. The levels correspond to the range of services each hospital can offer. PhilHealth President Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. hope this will assist patients, including those who suffered from heart disease during the 2024 holiday season, following a reported rise in cases by the Department of Health (DOH). The health maintenance organisation in Philippines chalked up losses of PHP4.269bn ($75m) in 2023, nearly triple the losses of PHP1.433bn in 2022, due to a substantial increase in claims and benefits paid, says a report released by WTW, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. WTW, in one of its its Global Medical Trends Survey report has stated that medical claims frequency has significantly rebounded, now surpassing the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, with the cost per claim rising primarily due to higher costs of medical services and procedures. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

China's National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) will soon roll out stricter regulation of medical insurance funds through a nationwide implementation of drug traceability codes. According to Chinese news agency Xinhua the initiative intends to curb fraudulent activities such as the resale and substitution of insured medications, as well as the misuse of medical insurance cards and counterfeit prescriptions. The drug traceability code is a unique electronic ID for each medication and, will be used to build large-scale data models to enhance regulatory oversight. The NHSA will use this data to identify and crack down on violations, strengthening enforcement actions against illegal activities. According to industry sources it is necessary to upgrade the national medicine supply security code, which can track the medical distribution process to ensure transparency and accountability. A statement by NHSA said that it had launched a nationwide pilot program for the collection and use of traceability codes in April 2024 and in November 2024 it publicly questioned 46 designated medical institutions about duplicate claims associated with these codes. This exercise marked the first step toward regulating medical insurance funds through traceability technology. The NHSA has held two rounds of discussions with over 100 pharmaceutical companies to guide self-inspection, address potential violations, and clarify regulations. The local health authorities have also been asked to organise similar outreach activities in their respective areas. The NHSA has called for strict adherence to regulations and ensure self-checks and report violations. NHSA has said that other fraudulent practices like empty billing and dealing in illegally sourced drugs should also be avoided and ethical procurement practices should be ensured. In September 2024, the Chinese authorities had detected medical insurance funds suspected of violating relevant regulations to the extent of over CNY2.2bn ($313.83m). Source: asiainsurancereview.com

We cordially invite you to a FREE SEMINAR (IN-PERSON) on Building Resilience Index (BRI) to be conducted by the International Finance Corporation – World Bank Group , with the following details: WHAT : BUILDING RESILIENCE INDEX (BRI) SEMINAR WHEN : 15 March 2023 (Wednesday) TIME : 2:00 onwards WHER E : Insurance Institute for Asia and the Pacific (IIAP) Function Hall BPI Philam Life Makati Condominium 6811, Ayala Avenue, Makati City SPEAKER: MR. ANGELO TAN Country Lead – Green & Resilient Buildings Climate Business Department, International Finance Corporation World Bank Group Brief Description of BRI: An innovation of IFC, Building Resilience Index is a web-based hazard mapping and resilience assessment framework for buildings, designed to facilitate access to location-specific hazard information, provide measures to mitigate risks, and improve transparency for disclosing a building’s resilience information between stakeholders, with the goal of channeling capital toward more resilient buildings. For additional information, attached is a copy of the BRI brochure for your reference. Thank you and we look forward to your joining the seminar.

We cordially invite you to a FREE SEMINAR (IN-PERSON) by Dr. Daniel T.C. Yao on May 26, 2023 (Friday), 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at IIAP Function Hall, 26th Floor, BPI Philam Life Makati, 6811, Ayala Ave., Makati City. Seminar Information By the end of 2022 the installed capacity of photovoltaics in Taiwan reached almost 10GW. In 2022 the power generated by photovoltaics alone in Taiwan was 10,675GWh, which accounted for 45% of total renewable energy and 3.7% of total power generation. The photovoltaics has become an indispensable part and a national security issue with respect to power supply in Taiwan. In 2015 Typhoon Hanna (Soudelor) devastated Taiwan and inflicted severe damages in green energy industry including photovoltaics. If a similar typhoon event occurs again today, the insurance loss from photovoltaics can be more than ten times of that from Soudelor in 2015. A recent study on the risks of photovoltaics in Taiwan based on the data from Taiwan Insurance Institute by Eos Rhea Metis, Ltd. (ERM) has shown several critical issues with respect to the safety of photovoltaics under the threats of natural and anthropogenic hazards. Dr. Daniel Yao as the chief researcher of this study will share his experience and lesson learned in Taiwan on the risks of photovoltaics from the perspectives of insurance industry. Thank you, and we look forward to your joining the seminar.

We are pleased to provide you with the program details and presenters’ background of the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) Orientation on 22 August 2023 at the IIAP Function Hall, from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Do note that there is a separate topic entitled "Market Outlook" unrelated to ORSA but is of importance to the local industry following AM Best's outlook downgrade from stable to negative. Let us hear from them as to what we can expect and do in the future. Again we remind everyone that this ORSA orientation is FREE and two (2) slots are allotted for each member-company.

In collaboration with the Bureau of Treasury (BTr), PIRA cordially invites you to a Financial Literacy Session on Retail Treasury Bonds (RTB). Participation to this session is FREE OF CHARGE. The session will cover the features, benefits, and available investment platforms of the RTBs. Resource Speakers: Deputy Treasurer Erwin D. Sta. Ana, Bureau of Treasury Jose Angelo L. Abad, Development Bank of the Philippines Leover L. Loyola, Overseas Filipino Bank Registration Link: https://forms.gle/W6GUBbFBQpcZGn3MA

The U.P. National Center for Transporation Studies (UP NCTS) in collaboration with the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA) cordially invites you to a FREE Webinar with the following details: EVENT: Webinar on “Enhancing Motorcycle Safety through Insurance Awareness” DATE: April 5, 2024 TIME: 1:30 – 4:30 PM (PH time) The webinar is spearheaded by the Traffic Engineering and Management - Road Safety and Research Laboratory (TEM-RSRL) group of the Center. The objectives of this webinar are: to raise awareness among motorcycle riders about the importance of insurance coverage in enhancing overall safety on the road; to encourage a culture of responsible riding by providing insights into preventive measures, defensive riding techniques, and the significance of compliance with legal requirements for insurance coverage; and to equip participants with practical knowledge on navigating the insurance claims process, ensuring they understand the steps involved in filing a claim and the importance of proper documentation. For more information/queries, please contact the UP NCTS Training Unit via e-mail at upncts@up.edu.ph and upncts.training.upd@up.edu.ph