China: Broader product mix can boost health insurance business
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Feb 2021
Insurers can grow short-term health insurance by broadening the product mix, serving specific groups such as older people, and bundling insurance with healthcare services, says Swiss Re Institute.
In a report titled ‘Short-term health insurance: a growth engine for China’s P&C insurers’, Swiss Re Institute says that short-term health insurance can drive growth for non-life insurers in China and may help to offset the non-life business hit from motor detarification in 2020 and 2021.
Short-term health insurance fills the gap between basic (but low-coverage) public health insurance and traditional long-term health insurance, primarily by reimbursing medical expenses.
A majority of health insurance participants surveyed for Swiss Re Institute research in 2020 expected short-term health insurance premiums to reach 20-30% of China’s health insurance market and lead the growth of P&C insurers in the next three years.
Insurers wrote more than CNY84bn ($13bn) of the policies in 2019, 12% of the CNY707bn total health insurance premiums (2015: 9.5%). A