Thoughts about mental illness

So AIA released a new plan recently.

On 24 Jan 2019, AIA launched its First Critical Illness plan. Before I begin with my post, let me disclaim once again I am NOT promoting AIA or its products. The way AIA marketed this product was that it is Singapore's first-ever insurance policy to provide coverage for mental conditions. Based on further readings, the covered mental conditions for five prominent mental illnesses, up to age 75.

In my opinion, this was a pretty good marketing gamble. Launch a brand new in the market product, and what happened was that the media hungrily lapped up this story. AIA's brand was thus given "free" advertising over the various news outlets. However, the purpose of this blog post is not to discuss the merits or flaws of this policy. My focus is on the five mental illnesses - Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), or Tourette Syndrome.

From what I understand about the industry, in order for AIA to launch this product, it would mean that Singapore probably has enough of a population segment who needs such coverage (where there is demand, there will be a supply). So this means that a portion of the Singapore population is suffering from one of these mental conditions, so much so that's enough for AIA to try to sell people such a product. This also kinda links to my previous post about how insurance can sell you a whole lot of products.