SINGAPORE – More companies here are including mental health benefits in their corporate insurance coverage, heeding the clarion call that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic to take mental wellness more seriously.
Similarly, Income Insurance saw about a 10 per cent increase in requests by employers to include mental health benefits post-pandemic. Employers recognise that staff mental well-being is integral to productivity and a sense of fulfilment at work, said Mr Jeff Ang, head of enterprise business solutions at Prudential Singapore.
Ms Grace Lee, the head of group insurance marketing at Great Eastern, said MNCs typically include benefits at the clinical-care level, which includes access to outpatient and inpatient treatment. “If budgets are a constraint as insurance premiums are escalating, then companies should look at other preventive measures. An example could be training people managers and creating some best practices within the organisation to ensure that the risk of mental health challenges is reduced,” said Mr Narale.