Insurers Launch Health Token Platforms to Promote Public Wellness and Rewards

The Ministry of Health and Welfare's "Health Coin" incentive program is scheduled to officially launch in October this year. This policy aims to encourage the public to cultivate independent health management habits and enhance the overall health and well-being of the nation through a digital reward mechanism. Upon the announcement of the news, major domestic life insurance companies showed a high level of willingness to cooperate, actively responding to this national health promotion policy. Flagship insurance companies, including Taiwan Life, Cathay Life, Fubon Life, Nan Shan Life, and KGI Life, have already initiated concrete planning and deployment, preparing to launch corresponding complementary measures concurrently with the policy rollout to catch this wave of the health promotion policy train.

To achieve optimal results in the promotion of Health Coins, major life insurers are intensively developing various bonus and dual-reward schemes within their proprietary digital health platforms or applications. Over the past few years, the domestic life insurance industry has actively promoted digital transformation, with many companies having already established their own health management apps. By integrating wearable devices, these apps record policyholders' daily step counts, sleep quality, heart rate, and other physiological data. With the Ministry of Health and Welfare launching the Health Coin program, life insurers plan to connect their own reward mechanisms with the government's Health Coin system. This will allow policyholders to not only accumulate their existing platform points while maintaining daily exercise habits, but also simultaneously receive government-issued Health Coins, enjoying substantial dual-benefit rewards.

Beyond bonus rewards on existing platforms, some life insurance companies are taking a longer-term view by planning entirely new insurance policies that incorporate Health Coin spillover mechanisms. So-called spillover policies are insurance products that link a policyholder's health status with premium discounts or increased coverage. In the past, spillover policies largely relied on policyholders downloading specific apps or submitting health check reports to prove their health status. In the future, if the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Health Coin mechanism is introduced, insurance companies will have a more standardized and officially recognized basis for health data assessment. Insurers plan that in the future, as long as policyholders demonstrate good health management behaviors in their daily lives through the Health Coin mechanism and meet specific conditions and thresholds, they will be able to enjoy substantial discounts when paying renewal premiums, achieving a win-win situation where policyholders save money and insurance companies reduce claim risks.

From the perspective of industrial development, life insurers' active response to the Health Coin program reflects a paradigm shift in the insurance industry's business model. The traditional life insurance business model in the past relied heavily on a "post-event claims" logic, which means providing financial compensation only when policyholders fell ill or suffered accidents. However, as Taiwan enters a super-aged society alongside trends such as the younger demographic of chronic disease onset, medical and care costs continue to rise. Consequently, the business mindset of the insurance industry is gradually shifting toward "ex-ante prevention." By encouraging policyholders to exercise more, maintain healthy diets and daily routines, and lower the risk of illness, it not only effectively reduces the overall medical burden on society, but also stabilizes insurance companies' claims expenditures to achieve the goal of sustainable operations.

Furthermore, the implementation of this policy will help accelerate the integration of Taiwan's financial and insurance digital ecosystem. The Ministry of Health and Welfare's Health Coin program involves cross-ministerial resource integration and public-private sector cooperation. For life insurance companies, seamlessly embedding the official Health Coin system into their own digital services tests each provider's technical integration capabilities and user experience design. It can be foreseen that once the Health Coins officially launch in October, major life insurers will inevitably engage in a wave of competition regarding digital marketing and functional optimization. This will attract health-conscious young and middle-aged demographics, thereby expanding the potential policyholder base and injecting a shot in the arm into the domestic insurance market.

(Source: Central News Agency)