MEDICARD Philippines, Inc. is bullish on growth amid rising demand for healthcare coverage, which it wants to serve through the continued product diversification and digitalization.
“How many people in the Philippines have healthcare coverage today? How many people in the Philippines need healthcare coverage? If you take a cycle looking out three to five years, I’ve got to believe that growth in the Philippines market in healthcare is going to continue, but also in the insurance segment more broadly,” MediCard Chief Executive Officer Julian Mengual told reporters on the sidelines of an event on Wednesday.
Citing its parent’s AIA Philippines Life and General Insurance Co., Inc.’s 2025 Rethink Health Study, Mr. Mengual said the company wants to leverage strong demand for healthcare solutions as out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare continues to rise among Filipinos.
“If you are spending more than 40% on healthcare, there’s a need for solutions. And we know a lot of diseases could be managed if they were prevented and caught early. We can do this stuff. That’s why I’m bullish,” he said.
“Now what the trick is going to be is helping people who are non-purchasers of healthcare become purchasers. And the challenge that we need to address is making sure healthcare is affordable, making sure the solutions we provide are relevant, and they bring all the parts that we can bring together to help customers meet their needs.”
MediCard is planning to launch embedded insurance products this year, possibly through multiple partnerships, Mr. Mengual said.
“We’ve identified what we think are areas where there’s an unmet need, and we’ve identified partners we believe would be well-suited in that space to support us, and now we’re starting to put together propositions and engage,” he said.
“So, the timelines will very much then depend on partners and their willingness to take these solutions and their appetite and their timing, but we already see two or three spaces where we see significant opportunity.”
He added that they will expand their products for both corporations and retail customers.
“I see that we will continue to build out relevant propositions for individuals that could be purchased directly or could be purchased with partners and could be embedded in partner solutions. That’s one part, but I see this as the first steps in building out future propositions together for corporates that go beyond this as well.”
MediCard will also continue its investments in insurtech to improve its services and distribution, particularly those utilizing emerging technologies like agentic artificial intelligence (AI).
“I think insurtech broadly helps us do things differently. We’ve invested significantly in AI over this period. I think of AI as the next extension, especially agentic AI, but also, I think the digitalization and making things frictionless and the smooth experience are all areas where insurtech will play a role,” Mr. Mengual said.
MediCard also expects continued demand for its recently launched healthcare plan that is targeted towards gig economy workers and other individuals without regular company benefits. Demand for MediCard H.E.R.O. (Health Emergency Response On-Demand) will be driven by its agency channel following “significant” growth since its launch last month, Mr. Mengual said.
“Actually, where we think it will start to expand quite significantly now is that we’re seeing in our agency channel that this is a product that they would like to prioritize to make available to members, and the reason being the pricing is very affordable… It also gives very good care,” he said.
“So we expect to see this grow over the rest of the year in our alternative channels that we have. Originally, it started as something we soft launched on our direct channels, particularly Facebook, and now it’s something that’s being offered through our AI agents, et cetera. So we expect to see improved trends in this.”
MediCard’s net income declined by 75.39% year on year to P39.28 million in the first quarter from P159.66 million, data from the Insurance Commission showed. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
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