insured persons with disabilities. Because there were no units collecting
insurance data from life insurance companies between 2000 and 2012, the
insurance companies had to refer to the empirical data of international
reinsurance companies when underwriting. The FSC asked the TII to build
an empirical statistical database for persons with disabilities effective
January 1, 2012, and requested that insurance companies promptly submit
relevant statistical data for the various categories of disability listed by the
institute. The goal was to calculate the likelihood of various events occurring
so that insurance companies could set and prepare the appropriate insurance
product rates and liability reserves. However, because such data remain
insufficient today, when insurance companies set insurance product rates,
they generally refer to the information provided by the insurers, insurerrelated physical condition reports (e.g., medical examination results and
medical records), and underwriting manuals of reinsurance companies to
comprehensively assess the risks that the insured are exposed to, to
determine their insurance product rates.
(4) Although insurance companies have established underwriting assessment
procedures for certain types of disability, the information is not fully
transparent to disabled applicants, resulting in them being unaware of the
insurance companies’ underwriting standards. Thus, even if they prepare and
submit all the required health documents, their insurance applications may still
be rejected following lengthy underwriting procedures. The FSC noted that
insurance companies decide whether to accept insurance applications by
performing risk assessments and evaluating their risk management
capabilities on a case-by-case basis. Thus, establishing unified underwriting
review standards that are applicable to all insurance companies is difficult.
Nevertheless, the commission has requested that the NLIA and LIAROC
amend their Guidelines for Insuring Persons with Disabilities to introduce a
set of underwriting assessment procedures and standards to be followed by the
insurance industry for all disability types. The NLIA and LIAROC are still
deliberating and reviewing the amendments to be made, and the FSC shall
continue to monitor the follow-up. Additionally, because persons with
disabilities adjust their lifestyle in response to their social setting, there is no
reason for the setting of risk assessment standards to be drawn out of thin air.
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