Monday,
March 16, 2020 / 09:30 AM /By Ekerete Ola Gam-Ikon / Header Image Credit: Wall Street Journal
You may have been sold the idea of a Life Insurance
policy, which gives life (hope) to your dependents in the event of your
unexpected demise whether as a result of accident or illness, and you said
"God forbid!" That remains our common response, though a few people
have gone beyond it to say "Whatever be the case, we will accept it as the
will of God".
So often, the concerted efforts to deny our need for
insurance, based on the simple notion that we should not put our lives in the
hands of others or help others to make money on our misfortunes, have been the
most intriguing aspects of my engaging experiences with insurance policyholders
and would-be policyholders!
It is quite common to see people, notwithstanding
their level of social experience and knowledge, invest hugely in assets or
intellectual work, then fail to see or understand why they should secure or
protect such investments with insurance. The usual answer is "Insurance
companies in Nigeria do not pay claims when the time comes!"
Presenting facts like the National Insurance
Commission (NAICOM) did recently that the insurance industry in Nigeria paid
N330b as claims in 2019 and N207b in 2018, does not sway people.
What moves them, and had become the marketing tool for
some insurance companies and practitioners, is the FEAR OF LOSING that prized
asset from good health to the multi-million automobiles. These ones insure with
strong expectations of compensation and when nothing comes, may be on account
of not paying attention to the policy details, insurance is bad news.
Waiting For The Bad
News?
Globally, there is that news - COVID 19, which is far
worse than anything insurance could do to any of us and the FEAR OF CORONAVIRUS
is not like anything we have lived with. Good enough, we have seemingly had
enough time to learn about it and the previous unhealthy experiences from Ebola
have been very useful.
Ordinarily, one would expect that we adopt some, if
not all, of the precautionary measures we have seen in the last few weeks
against situations that have been eating up our population in nearly the same
way COVID 19 has done in other countries, to address our battles against
insecurity, recession, poverty, diseases and disasters.
These "viruses" can similarly receive the
bouts of attention that governments at the Federal and State level are giving
this pandemic. Especially, the communication of what to do namely regular
washing of hands amongst others have made life quite meaningful these
days.
Imagine then if we were consistently communicating steps
that citizens should take to stay free from insecurity, diseases, disasters and
poverty!
The Role of Insurance
Explained
Could we suggest that citizens take insurance
contracts as part of safety tips in the face of insecurity? Yes!
The common security risks we face are forceful seizure
of our movable assets (cars, laptops, phones, documents, clothing and
jewelries), which are insurable, often under householders comprehensive
insurance. Losing your prized assets can be painful but the process of coming
back to the position you were before that unexpected and unfortunate incident
can be very tortuous.
In terms of diseases, when people are struck and they
cannot even visit the hospital because they do not have money to pay the
consultation fees, therein lies part of the explanation for our poverty level,
which could have been averted if the affected persons had insurance.
The Federal and State Governments need to start
advising citizens to take insurance policies that will be useful when diseases
and disasters strike. We cannot afford to wait for these wealth destroyers when
we can use insurance to safeguard ourselves and our hard-earned assets.
The active poor amongst us can be helped to steadily
escape the poverty bracket through effective and efficient microinsurance
experiences.
These ones understand the philosophy of insurance but
need the conventional insurance that can deliver positive changes in quality of
living. With minuscule sums they can have insurance contracts that addresses
their healthcare and lifestyle issues. Affordability is a principal issue that
is addressed at this level.
What If Coronavirus
Arrives?
When that fever arrives before one is confirmed to
have COVID 19 or otherwise, having health or medical insurance emboldens you to
make that visit to the hospital, without any fear of being quarantined. You
could self-quarantine and that would be because your insurance empowers
you.
However, once the health situation has been declared a
global epidemic as the World Health Organization (WHO) recently did, insurers
would exclude the cost of treatment for the virus from the insurance policy,
and policyholders need to be aware of this at the point of buying the policy.
Under such circumstances, insurers would share
necessary information with policyholders and the general public on a regular
basis.
With the increasing participation of global insurance
brands in the Nigerian market, one can hope that insurers in Nigeria would
adopt effective ways of communicating the offerings they have to help citizens
respond better to insecurity, diseases, disasters and poverty.
We cannot be fully prepared to respond to crisis
whether economic, political or social, without insurance.
Do you even know that your insurance policy can serve
as the collateral that our banks regularly demand for?
We must explore the benefits of insurance as we seek
ways to manage any virus at any time.
What you know will save you...
"Knowledge isn't power until it is applied!"
- Dale Carnegie
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