Life insurers are offering discounted premiums to customers who improve their health or lifestyle, such as by exercising more or quitting smoking.
If insurers can encourage customers to pay more attention to managing their health, the incidence of disease could fall, leading to fewer insurance payouts.
With people having fewer children and getting married later in life, the life insurance industry is struggling to find new policyholders. They hope that focusing on the buzzword "health" will open the door to a new source of customers.
Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. plans to debut its new Vitality product Tuesday, offering discounted premiums to customers who take steps to improve their health, such as by exercising more or changing their diet.
Sumitomo plans to include this special feature in its life, health and other insurance plans. Enrollees will receive a 15 percent discount on monthly premiums simply by joining the program.
Customers can then earn points for getting health exams, taking a certain amount of steps each day and other achievements.
Those who earn a large number of points will receive further discounts of up to 30 percent. In contrast, earning only a small number of points will lead to a premimum increase of up to 10 percent.
This special feature will cost an extra 864 yen per month.
If customers' health improves and the incidence of disease declines, the amount insurers pay out for medical insurance and other fees will also decrease.
With conventional insurance products, premiums are determined based on sex and age once a customer passes a screening. Customers in the same category are charged the same rate, regardless of how they manage their health.
"We recommend this product because it provides continuous support for [customers'] activities to promote health. It could encourage young people [an age group with a low rate of insurance coverage] to purchase a plan," Sumitomo Life President Masahiro Hashimoto said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
As many people start thinking about life insurance when they get married or have a child, the growing tendency to marry later in life has slowed the influx of new customers.
According to the Life Insurance Association of Japan, the number of new individual insurance contracts in fiscal 2017 was down about 10 percent from the previous year, to 17.27 million contracts.
However, with people living longer, there is more awareness of the importance of extending one's years of good health.
Other firms are offering similar products in an effort to create demand.
Last August, Tokio Marine & Nichido Life Insurance Co. began offering Aruku Hoken, a health-insurance product that offers partial refunds to customers who walk an average of 8,000 steps per day over a certain period. Steps are measured using a wearable device and an app the company created.
Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. in March started a new special contract that offers discounts of up to about 20 percent. Customers receive a discount just for submitting health exam results, and larger discounts are approved if certain conditions are met.
Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. is planning to offer a new product next April that provides partial premium refunds based on whether customers receive yearly health exams and the results of the exams.
Still, some in the industry harbor concerns about the programs.
"To reduce insurance premiums, we need deeper analyses of data to determine to what extent health-promoting activities such as exercise actually reduce the incidence of disease," a senior executive at Nippon Life Insurance Co. said.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
