The booming pet economy promotes the development of pet insurance
It is difficult to define the claims conditions and the pain points of pet insurance
At the beginning of the year, the pet Teddy raised by a citizen, Ms. Zhu, suddenly could not walk on the left hind leg. She was worried that it was a common Teddy dislocation of the patella. She specially took the pet to the hospital. It cost Ms. Zhu about 1,000 yuan.
Since then, Ms. Zhu has decisively bought an insurance for her pet on an online platform, and plans to continue to renew it.
With the rapid heating up of the pet economy, the insurance industry has ushered in development opportunities.
However, the current pet insurance is still in the exploratory period, and there are many "pain points" such as low penetration rate, difficulty in defining claims conditions, and unclear cooperation between pet insurance and pet hospitals.
Text/Guangzhou Daily All Media Reporter Zhao Fangyuan
The reporter learned that the pet insurance purchased by Ms. Zhu is an experience version of pet medical insurance with a price of 0.14 yuan/month, which is underwritten by China Continent Property Insurance Co., Ltd.
The cumulative compensation limit is 15,000 yuan, and the compensation limit for each accident is 1,500 yuan.
After the first month of experience is over, the monthly renewal price thereafter is 33.25 yuan.
The deductible clause shows that the necessary and reasonable medical expenses for each accident occur, after deducting the absolute deductible (200 yuan deductible for non-surgical treatment, 0 yuan deductible for surgical treatment), the insured pet will receive a designated pet medical treatment. 60% of the amount can be paid for treatment in an institution; 40% of the amount can be paid for treatment in a non-designated pet medical institution.
The pet economy is booming, and the insurance industry welcomes opportunities
The "White Paper on China's Pet Consumption Trends in 2021" released by iResearch shows that the market size of my country's pet industry in 2020 will be close to 300 billion yuan, and the industry will continue to maintain steady growth in the next three years, with a compound growth rate of 14.2%. reached 445.6 billion yuan.
The rapidly booming pet economy has brought development opportunities to the insurance industry.
Earlier, Swiss Re's "China Pet Insurance Development Report" showed that in 2020, the number of pet owners was 62.94 million, and the number of pets (dogs and cats) was 10.84 million.
Swiss Re speculates that if the growth rate is about 25%, the scale of pet insurance premiums in my country is expected to reach about 1.4 billion yuan in 2025, and the penetration rate of pet insurance is expected to reach more than 1.2%.
Pet medical insurance and liability insurance currently have the highest market share
Insurance companies such as Ping An Property & Casualty, Pacific Insurance, Sunshine Property & Casualty, and Continent Insurance have entered the market and launched various pet insurance products.
The reporter learned that the main product types in the current pet insurance market include medical insurance, liability insurance, accident insurance, pet theft insurance, consignment insurance, etc.
Among them, medical insurance and liability insurance are the two types of insurance with the highest market share.
One of the reasons behind the birth of pet insurance is the high consumption brought about by pets seeing a doctor.
A person in the pet industry told reporters that, in fact, the reason why the pet hospital charges higher is mainly due to the high cost of inspection.
"Because pet medical equipment is used less frequently, the cost of amortizing each inspection becomes high."
According to statistics, in 2020, the number of pet clinics in the country will exceed 16,000, and the pet medical market will be about 40 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 20% in the past three years.
Pet insurance applauds but not
The reporter found that most consumers do not understand pet insurance.
Data shows that compared with the pet insurance penetration rate of up to 40% in some developed countries, the current pet insurance penetration rate in my country is less than 1%.
Why is pet insurance so popular?
Mr. Zhao, a relevant person in the insurance industry, told reporters that on the one hand, the current price of pet insurance is relatively high.
At the same time, compared with human insurance, the current development of pet insurance is not mature enough, from product design to sales and marketing.
"One of the major pain points is that it is relatively difficult to define the conditions for settlement of claims. For example, the estimated compensation for a dog's intentional injury is relatively high, but it is still necessary to define it according to the actual situation, and only when the corresponding conditions are met can a claim be settled." Mr. Zhao said.
Guan Xin, the relevant person in charge of a pet hospital, reminded: Although many pet insurances sold online, although the price is low, the coverage is small, often not as good as those launched by regular insurance companies with high insured amounts and wide coverage.
In addition, the method of claim settlement also needs to be strengthened and standardized. "Consumers should contact in advance to confirm whether the pet insurance purchased by the relevant designated hospitals is valid before purchasing."