The Insurance Commission (IC), in coordination with the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), is working on the guidelines that could allow local insurers to access overseas Filipino worker (OFWs) as possible clients.Insurance commissioner Reynaldo Regalado said one of the plans being considered is a pilot implementation that would only cover OFWs in select countries.
“We’re preparing the proper circular, but we’re coordinating with the DMW on this, on how we’re making sure that the manner in which we’ll be executing this on those particular jurisdictions would not be violative not only of our laws, but also the laws and rules of the host country,” Regalado told reporters.
“We have to make sure that the issue of… because there’s a clear provision in our law that states that coverage should be made in the Philippines. We cannot remove that. We have to see how best we can have that implemented. There must be some way even prior to entering. We’ll be having those considerations in,” he added.
Under the current regulations, OFWs must be physically present in the country to avail and complete the purchase of life insurance products from Philippine-based insurers.
As for the current rules for deployment, OFWs bound for work abroad are only required to have insurance coverage for accidental death, permanent total disability, repatriation cost, subsistence allowance benefit and money claims arising from employer’s liability. Provisions to provide coverage for compassionate visit by relatives, medical evacuation and medical repatriation are also required to be included in the compulsory OFW insurance.
“There’s a lot of adjustments that we need to make. We’re even looking at having it on a pilot basis in certain countries, (where) we don’t have a possibility of having some problems on how they would pursue these things,” Regalado said.
