South Korea: Majority would use healthcare value-added services provided by insurers

| 02 Jul 2020

Over three quarters (76.6%) of respondents in a recent survey say they would use healthcare value-added services provided by insurers such as health counselling, discounted genetic testing for cancer and pharmacogenomics testing.

The findings of the survey by MetLife Korea also show that despite rising life expectancies, Korean people would prefer to live a shorter and healthy life rather than a longer life with a serious illness. More than 88% of the respondents stated a preference for living a shorter yet healthy life, rather than living for a long time with a bad health condition, reported The Korea Times.

The life insurer carried out the survey on 1,000 adults aged between 20 and 59.

There is a huge gap between awareness and behaviour for a healthy life among the respondents. Over 90% of the respondents picked "financial stability" as the most important factor for a healthy life. But only 32.5% of them turned out to actually do anything for their health.

"Early detection of medical issues" was the second most important factor for a healthy life, according to the survey. About 89% of respondents said the factor is important for their health, but just 38.1% of them actually took action.

Among the respondents, men expressed more confidence about their health condition, with 33.8% saying they remained confident in maintaining a healthy life. But only 17% women said so.

MetLife offers a wide selection of healthcare services in Korea. The company is one of the first insurers to access pharmacogenomics testing. The insurer also offers more specialised and premium services to some selected customers with access to top-tier hospitals, free pharmacogenomics testing and positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans to better diagnose, treat and track illnesses such as cancer.

More interesting reads:

India: 25% would cut life insurance premium payments to ease financial strain

Asian market falls behind in terms of pension systems- Allianz Global Pension Report 2020

Hong Kong parents keen to support their children's life milestones face HK$3.4 million savings shortfall - Prudential Survey

For the full suite of stories and updates, always check in to our Facebook / LinkedIn. Click the following if you want to improve your sales, learn how to be a better leader, or you just need some motivation to kick start your engine.

Do you have a new product or programme to share? Or perhaps you are keen to explore any collaborations with us or our partners?  Reach out to us at Connect@AsiaAdvisersNetwork.com