Tunku Dato’ Seri Utama Naquiyuddin

ASEAN Business Leaders: How does AXXESS benefit its users to access quality healthcare?

YAM Tunku Laxamana Tunku Dato’ Seri Utama Naquiyuddin: The challenge in healthcare is that so many people are not insured, or insufficiently insured. During employment, people are covered under the PA (personal accident) cover, but after retirement this is no longer the case. Most people when they are 55 years and over, they have retired but it is also the time when ailments and health complaints may arise. It is only then that this group realizes that are not covered for health insurance, and in case of hospital admittance they have to bare the full costs. This group of people are very vulnerable and unawareness about proper healthcare insurance can place them in difficult situations. For AXXESS, this problem provides us with an opportunity so we aim to assist these people to get access to healthcare services.

Generally, insurance premiums are expensive and this is mainly why many people have minimized their insurance cover or they do not have insurance at all. They are also not well informed about the products and the future benefits that insurance will bring. We had a look into this group and we realized that it is a great market to offer the people a solution. Our main focus is to provide a high quality service that is economic; in fact, there are hardly any costs because the insurance premium is paid through every day shopping expenses.

ASEAN Business Leaders: Can you please explain how the AXXESS programme works?

YAM Tunku Laxamana Tunku Dato’ Seri Utama Naquiyuddin: We have created a loyalty program, AXXESS, where you can collect points through your everyday shopping. These points are converted and are used to pay for insurance covers. When you have collected for example 400 points, you have access to free hospitalization up to a value of 50,000 ringgit. That is something of great value to many people, who would otherwise have to bare these costs themselves or wait for availability in a government hospital. But this programme gives them the opportunity to use the insurance services and to go to a private hospital.

Other benefits that the AXXESS programme offers is the provision of motor insurance. Once a user has accumulated sufficient points, you can as well pay for your car or motor insurance.

We have partners on both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, we have global insurance companies, such as AIA, Zurich, Zurich-Takaful and Alliance. On the other side, we have the merchants. We have diverse merchants where people go to for their everyday shopping, including Petronas, grocery outlets such as Giant, Cold Storage, Mercato and Jason’s, and e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Zalora.

ASEAN Business Leaders: Do you see the potential of expanding the AXXESS programme in the ASEAN region?

YAM Tunku Laxamana Tunku Dato’ Seri Utama Naquiyuddin: We are very excited about the ASEAN community. The ASEAN region has more than 650 million people, and an increasing middle class. There is a lot of SME activity in this economic block, which leads to an increase of wealthier people. This group of people will have an increasing demand for health care services and the need for insurance. So this is our focus area for expansion. Currently, most of these people are not insured and therefore it means a great opportunity for us to provide our services.