In 2023, the supply-side structural reform of the life insurance industry will continue to deepen, the integration of products and services will continue to deepen, and through the reform and innovation of serious illness insurance, inclusive insurance, long-term care insurance, and third-pillar pension insurance, we will further promote the effective docking of the supply and demand of medical, first-class nursing, pension and other services, and continue to meet the urgent practical needs of the people of "childcare, medical treatment, care for the elderly, and support for the weak". Looking forward to 2024, industry insiders believe that China's life insurance industry is still in a period of important strategic opportunities and has great development potential.
Health insurance continues to benefit people's livelihoods.
Focusing on the key areas of inclusive insurance, commercial health insurance products continued to expand, and further strengthened the protection for specific groups such as the elderly, children and new citizens.
The insurance work of "Huimin Insurance" in 2024 in many places has recently come to an end. As the most guided and commercialized urban customized commercial medical insurance, "Huimin Insurance" resonates at the same frequency with the "triple system guarantee" of basic medical insurance, serious illness insurance and medical assistance, effectively promoting the construction of a multi-level medical security system.
In many places, "Huimin Insurance" includes the elderly, people with pre-existing conditions, and new citizens into the scope of protection, and continues to iteratively upgrade the protection group, coverage and convenient claims, etc., and strives to alleviate the problem of poverty and return to poverty due to illness, fully reflecting the role of inclusive commercial health insurance in protecting people's livelihood. Taking Beijing Universal Health Insurance as an example, among the 3.5 million people enrolled in 2022, more than 1.1 million are over 60 years old and more than 160,000 are new citizens. "As of the end of the third quarter of 2023, more than 80,000 insured people of Beijing Universal Health Insurance have incurred large medical expenses and received compensation. The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration said at the online press conference of the 2024 Beijing Inclusive Health Insurance that the most compensated is a leukemia patient, with a compensation of 630,000 yuan; The oldest patient with a 103-year-old fracture and the youngest was a 1-year-old toddler with leukemia.
After rapid development in recent years, "Huimin Insurance" is standing at the "crossroads" of transformation and upgrading, and there are problems such as declining participation rate and exaggerated publicity in some areas. In order to ensure the sustainable development of the "Huimin Insurance" business, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration and the National Medical Security Administration recently jointly issued the "Notice on the Smooth and Orderly Development of Urban Customized Commercial Medical Insurance (Draft for Comments)" to local branches and insurance companies, proposing that local medical insurance departments should conditionally provide part of the medical insurance data to insurance companies for the design and determination of insurance rates for the insurance liability of "Huimin Insurance"; Encourage the design of "Huimin Insurance" as a long-term medical insurance with adjustable rates; Employers are encouraged to make full use of preferential tax policies and purchase customized medical insurance for employees.
In addition to the lively "Huimin Insurance" business, the health insurance market is still facing the dilemma of homogenization, product innovation has encountered bottlenecks, and there are deficiencies in meeting the diversified and multi-level health security needs of the masses. Since last year, favorable policies for long-term care insurance, tax-advantaged health insurance and other types of insurance have been introduced. In March 2023, in order to improve the supply capacity of long-term care insurance, the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Business of Life Insurance and Long-term Care Insurance Liability Conversion", which will carry out the pilot of life insurance and long-term care insurance liability conversion business from May 1, 2023, and the pilot period is tentatively set for two years. In July 2023, in order to promote the commercial health insurance applicable to the preferential individual income tax policy to benefit more people, the regulatory authorities issued the Notice on Relevant Matters Concerning the Application of the Preferential Individual Income Tax Policy Products of Commercial Health Insurance, expanding the scope of commercial health insurance products subject to the preferential individual income tax policy to include medical insurance, long-term care insurance and illness insurance.
Pension services work together.
By giving full play to the advantages of funds, customers, brands, channels, teams, etc., the insurance industry deeply participates in and integrates the pension industry chain, and effectively improves the health status of the elderly to enhance the quality of life by providing health promotion, disease prevention, chronic disease management, first-class nursing and other health management supporting services.
In winter, across the street from Beijing Friendship Hospital, the "Friendship Community" dementia care area is warm, and there is a "memory box" at the door of each elderly person with dementia that displays the professional background and hobbies of the elderly, and the room decoration also tries to restore the familiar living environment of the elderly, repeating the cognitive memory of the elderly's self-identity from the aspects of smell, hearing, touch, etc., and delaying the development of dementia; In the gym of "Wutong People's Home" in Shanghai's China Taiping Retirement Community, the elderly use age-appropriate fitness equipment to "lift irons", and young fitness coaches provide auxiliary guidance next to them; In Chinese Life's first elderly care community "Tianjin Paradise", the elderly are happy to participate in a variety ......of interest courses and club activitiesIn 2023, the retirement community will become the driving force of insurance enterprise services, and insurance companies such as Everybody Insurance, Chinese Life, Taiping Life, China Taibao, and Taikang Insurance have all landed new retirement communities.
Insurance companies investing in pension communities can better link with the main business of insurance and form a closed loop of services, such as helping customers to do a good job in health management, pension savings and planning with the help of business advantages in the insurance field. He Xiaofeng, chairman of Dajia Insurance Group, said that the company focused on the capacity building of the three core service areas of "medical care and nursing", and initially built a full-scene elderly medical service capability and a full-cycle first-class service system framework, and the exclusive housekeeper and life care services have also been continuously iteratively upgraded. "In the future, we will continue to strengthen the capacity building of community operations and professional services, and improve the management level. He Xiaofeng said.
Pension finance is not only an important part of the national multi-level and multi-pillar pension insurance system, but also a strong backing for the high-quality development of the national pension security industry. With the deepening of the aging population, the pension financial business will usher in greater room for development. "The insurance industry has unique advantages in the design of pension products, long-term fund management, and the integration of the pension industry. Zhao Guodong, vice president of Chinese Life Insurance, said.
As an important part of the third pillar of pension insurance, the pilot of commercial pension business will be launched in 10 regions including Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu on January 1, 2023. "The company has formed a full pension product system including annuities, whole life insurance, personal pensions, commercial exclusive pension products, etc., which can meet the needs of different groups of pension insurance to the greatest extent. Zhao Guodong introduced that as of the end of last year, the pension insurance company under Chinese Life Group had achieved a commercial pension stock scale of 7.9 billion yuan and 340,000 effective accounts.
Experts suggest that in the future, we should continue to strengthen the innovation of pension products, research and development of payment methods, pension payments and other more flexible pension insurance products to meet the growing demand for pension insurance, especially will further increase the product research and development for new formats and new citizens' pension needs. At the same time, efforts are made to improve the risk pricing ability of the elderly, by strengthening cooperation and communication with hospitals, medical insurance bureaus and health management third parties, promoting the sharing and application of data resources, and in-depth analysis of the age, disease distribution and other portrait information of special elderly populations such as chronic diseases, advanced age, and disability, so as to continuously improve accurate pricing and risk management capabilities, expand the insurable population, and let risk protection benefit more elderly people.
Balance stable growth and risk prevention.
According to a recent report released by Swiss Re Research Institute, the Chinese life insurance market will recover significantly in 2023, with nominal premiums increasing by 12% year-on-year in the first three quarters. The adjustment of the predetermined interest rate of life insurance has led to the sales of life insurance business. "Against the backdrop of a moderate rebound in household income growth, continuous improvement in consumer confidence, increased social security capabilities, and the insurance industry's active promotion of supply-side reform and product innovation, the Swiss Re Research Institute believes that the life insurance market will continue to stabilize and improve in the next few years. Swiss Re China President and CEO of Reinsurance China, said Kong Yifeng.
At the same time, the main sales channels are facing different development difficulties, and the foundation for the continuous recovery of the industry is still not solid. According to the analysis report released by the Strategic Planning Department of Chinese Life Insurance Company, in the context of the transformation of the industry team, it is difficult for the individual insurance channel to reverse the downward trend of team size in the short term, the core manpower of the sales team has not made a fundamental breakthrough, and the production capacity improvement brought by relying on products from critical illness to savings, and the period from 10 years to 3 years and 5 years is difficult to sustain. Under the new fee regulations, the bancassurance channel is facing a situation of renegotiation and reshuffling with banks.
In order to prevent industry risks, guide the development of healthy and standardized development such as cost control, product supervision, and sales behavior, the regulatory authorities have introduced a series of systems since 2023. The Strategic Planning Department of Chinese Life Insurance Company believes that in the long run, it will be conducive to the sustainable and healthy development of the industry, but in the short term, it will bring problems of re-adaptation, compliance costs and rising pressures.
Looking back at 2023, while fully serving the overall situation of economic and social development, Chinese Insurance has achieved steady and good development achievements and quality improvement in stability. Zhang Baohui, the main person in charge of the strategy department of Chinese Insurance Group, said that in the first 11 months of 2023, Chinese Insurance achieved a premium income of 61341.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 733%；The amount of risk protection provided reached 329296 trillion yuan; Compensation payouts 36148.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 139%。In terms of sub-sectors, the annual original premium income of life insurance returned to the range of 100 billion yuan.
Looking ahead to 2024, many industry insiders believe that the insurance industry will continue to improve and is still in an important period of strategic opportunities. Zhang Baohui said: "Our confidence comes from the country's policy orientation to support the development of the insurance industry, the first financial work conference emphasized the role of the insurance industry as an economic shock absorber and social stabilizer, and clearly put forward to do a good job in the 'five big articles', insurance will become an important means of the first policy 'toolbox' at all levels." Yang Minggang, general manager of the business management department of Sinosure, said that it will increase the underwriting support for the "going out" in the fields of pension, medical care and health, give full play to the long-term financial advantages of the insurance industry, actively participate in the development of the health and pension industry, and do a good job in pension finance. (Economic ** reporter Yang Ran).