Yes, travel insurance is worth carrying for a trip to Iloilo City on Panay Island, and the honest reason is typhoon season rather than everyday danger in the city itself. The Philippines sits squarely in one of the world's most active typhoon regions, and Iloilo, like much of the Western Visayas, is genuinely exposed to storms that can disrupt flights, ferries, and plans built around events like the city's well-known Dinagyang Festival each January, or a quieter visit built around Iloilo's colonial-era heritage district.
Iloilo has reasonably developed local hospital care for routine treatment, but anything requiring specialist or higher-level attention is typically referred to Manila, the national capital, or Cebu, the region's other major hospital hub, depending on the case. Confirm your policy covers medical transport between Philippine cities, since that referral step - not treatment in Iloilo itself - is the part most likely to involve real distance for anything beyond routine care.
Typhoon season runs roughly June through November, with the heaviest activity typically clustered from July through October, and storms during this window can ground inter-island ferries and delay flights, usually with real advance warning but genuine disruption once a storm actually arrives. Confirm your policy covers typhoon-related trip delay and cancellation if your visit falls within this window, particularly if your itinerary depends on tight inter-island ferry connections.
Keep any clinic or hospital paperwork, ferry or airline delay notices, and receipts for unplanned accommodation if a storm disrupts your plans, since Philippine carriers and terminals generally issue standard delay documentation on request. Many policies treat typhoon-related cancellation as a standard covered event, so check the wording for how it defines the disruption and what documentation is required, and confirm this cover explicitly before booking travel through Iloilo during the more active months of the season rather than after a storm has already grounded your connection.