More than 100 insurance companies disclosed that the comprehensive loss ratio of personal short-term health insurance last year was over 100% and the highest was 173.87%
Our reporter Leng Cuihua
As of March 8, according to incomplete statistics from the "Securities Daily" reporter, at least more than 100 insurance companies have disclosed the comprehensive loss ratio of personal short-term health insurance in 2020 on their official websites, including 6 insurance companies’ personal short-term health insurance. The comprehensive loss ratio is higher than 100%.
From the perspective of different types of insurance companies, the health insurance loss ratio of property insurance companies is significantly higher than that of life insurance companies.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission stated that in recent years, the average annual growth rate of my country's health insurance premium income has exceeded 30%.
However, the rapid development of short-term health insurance has also exposed problems such as falsely high insurance coverage, irregular sales, and disorderly competition.
To this end, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Regulating Short-term Health Insurance Business Related Issues" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") on January 11, 2021, requiring insurers to regularly disclose the overall comprehensive loss rate indicators for personal short-term health insurance.
Recently, various insurance companies have successively disclosed the comprehensive loss ratio of personal short-term health insurance in 2020.
Personal short-term health insurance
The payout ratio is up to 173.87%
Statistics show that there is a huge gap in the comprehensive loss ratio of short-term personal health insurance of different insurance companies.
Among the over 100 insurance companies that have disclosed the comprehensive loss ratio of personal short-term health insurance in 2020, 6 insurers have a comprehensive loss ratio of personal short-term health insurance exceeding 100%, with the highest reaching 173.87%; 24 insurers have this The comprehensive loss ratio of the business is less than 20%.
In response to this phenomenon, Wang Xiangnan, deputy director of the Insurance and Economic Development Research Center of the Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily that, except for some special reasons, the comprehensive loss ratio is too high, which usually reflects the lack of design of related products. , Or inadequate risk control measures when underwriting, need to iterate, increase prices, and strengthen underwriting.
It is difficult to sustain a business with an excessively high comprehensive loss ratio.
It is not uncommon for insurance companies to stop selling short-term health insurance products.
After combing through relevant announcements, a reporter from the Securities Daily found that an insurance company announced that it had suspended the sale of 10 short-term health insurance from 2018 to 2020.
Among them, 9 products had no valid insurance policies as of the end of last year, and the other product had only 6 valid policies.
The insurance company also stated that it will voluntarily stop selling one dental medical insurance on March 31.
The insurance industry analysts believe that the design of some short-term health insurance products is too radical, the insured amount is too high or the underwriting conditions are too loose, which will make the insurance business unsustainable.
Once the product is discontinued, it will affect the consumer experience.
Corresponding to the loss ratio of some insurance companies exceeding 100%, last year there were 18 life insurance companies and 6 property insurance companies that had personal short-term health insurance loss ratios of less than 20%.
In this regard, industry insiders believe that this may be related to the business structure of insurance companies.
For example, Million Medical Insurance sets a higher deductible. If it is set to 10,000 yuan, the proportion of consumers whose annual medical expenses exceeds 10,000 yuan after the medical insurance reimbursement will be greatly reduced.
Insurers have fewer cases of high claims, which will also lower their overall loss ratio.
Proportion of insurance companies with high loss ratio
Property insurance is higher than life insurance
Different types of insurance companies have different comprehensive loss ratios for their personal short-term health insurance.
The "Securities Daily" reporters have collected relevant data and found that in terms of the distribution of loss ratios, among the 70 life insurance companies that have disclosed loss ratio data, 18 have a loss ratio of less than 20%, accounting for 25.7%; the loss ratio is at There are 31 companies with a loss between 20% and 40%, accounting for 44.3%; a total of 15 companies with a loss ratio between 40% and 70%, accounting for 21.4%; 6 companies with a loss ratio of more than 70%, accounting for 8.6 %.
Among the 31 property insurance companies that have disclosed loss ratio data, 6 companies have a loss ratio of less than 20%, accounting for 19.4%; a total of 8 companies have a loss ratio between 20% and 40%, accounting for 26.7%; A total of 8 companies have a loss ratio between 40% and 70%, accounting for 25.8%; a total of 9 companies have a loss ratio of more than 70%, accounting for 29%.
Through the above data comparison, it can be seen that the proportion of insurance companies in the high loss ratio range of personal short-term health insurance of property and casualty insurance companies is significantly higher than that of life insurance companies.
A person in charge of a medium-sized property and casualty insurance company analyzed to a reporter from the Securities Daily that although property and casualty insurance companies can operate personal short-term health insurance, their overall experience is not as good as that of life insurance companies in terms of product design or underwriting. The company's life insurance business has few sales channels, mainly relying on third-party channels and relying on product integration to make large-scale operations. The high cost performance of the sales end is transmitted to the claims terminal, which often reflects a higher comprehensive compensation rate.
On the whole, the scale of health insurance business of property and casualty insurance companies is still small, and it is easily affected by individual cases, resulting in large fluctuations in the comprehensive loss ratio.
The payout center will also move up
The degree of difference will gradually decrease
Although there is a large difference in the loss ratio between insurance companies, overall, more than half of the insurers have a loss ratio of less than 40% for the personal short-term health insurance business.
Among them, 49 of the life insurance companies have a loss ratio of less than 40%, accounting for 70%; 14 of the property insurance companies have a loss ratio of less than 40%, accounting for 45%.
Industry insiders pointed out that, on the one hand, if the comprehensive loss ratio of an insurance category exceeds 100%, its operation is difficult to be sustainable.
On the other hand, if the loss ratio of a type of insurance is at an ultra-low level for a long time, it is difficult for consumers to feel the sense of acquisition after purchasing insurance, and it is difficult to reflect the meaning of insurance, and the sustainability of business development is also challenged.
Therefore, insurers continue to "look back" to their own operations to achieve a balance between business development and risk control.
Li Xiaoyi, Chief Actuary of China Re Property & Casualty Insurance, mentioned in a signed article at the beginning of last year that objectively speaking, the current loss rate of commercial health insurance business is not high, but the operation of insurance companies has always followed the "fee-indemnity linkage" rule. , A low loss ratio will drive the expense ratio to rise, and whether the rise in expense ratio can be effectively controlled is an important challenge for insurance companies to operate health insurance.
From the perspective of the development trend of the loss ratio, the loss ratios of critical illness insurance and medical insurance have shown an upward trend in recent years. Whether this trend can continue or accelerate will pose a potential threat to the profitability of the health insurance business.
Wang Xiangnan predicts that the center of the loss ratio of personal short-term health insurance may continue to move up in the next few years. Although the degree of difference in the loss ratio will gradually decrease, it will remain at a relatively high level overall.
(Securities Daily)