Long-term care insurance will achieve comprehensive coverage

Beijing Business Daily (Reporter Li Xiumei) reports that as an important measure to address the aging population, the Long-term Care Insurance (LTCI), known as the “Sixth Social Security Program,” has been piloted since 2016 and has now entered its tenth year. Over the past decade, the LTCI system has evolved from nothing to a comprehensive program, from pilot to nationwide expansion, achieving phased results. It is now transitioning from exploratory pilots to establishing a nationwide system. According to plans, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the National Healthcare Security Administration will accelerate the development of a Chinese-characteristic LTCI system from pilot projects to full implementation, gradually covering all citizens, and achieving new breakthroughs in system construction.

This year, as the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, is undoubtedly a critical period for the full establishment of the LTCI system. The government work report mentions “covering 300 million people with long-term care insurance” and “promoting the LTCI system” twice. The system is also a hot topic at the National Two Sessions, with many NPC deputies and CPPCC members offering suggestions for its development, such as establishing and improving the LTCI system, standardizing LTCI regulations across provinces and cities, quickly drafting a Long-term Care Insurance Law, and building a comprehensive legal framework for LTCI.

Against the backdrop of expanding coverage and continuous policy improvements, service innovation by market participants has become a key factor in whether LTCI can “remain steady and far-reaching.” Beijing Business Daily notes that in the process of advancing this major livelihood project, commercial insurance institutions, as important service providers and product suppliers, are continuously exploring pathways to upgrade their service capabilities. An increasing number of insurance companies are participating in LTCI management, undertaking core functions such as fund accounting, service auditing, and disability assessment.

Fu Yifu, a special researcher at the China Merchants Bank, told Beijing Business Daily that insurance institutions’ involvement in LTCI mainly manifests in four areas: first, management services, including fund accounting, disability assessment, and service auditing; second, product supply, developing commercial LTCI products as supplementary basic protection; third, service network integration, leveraging their resources to connect with nursing homes, medical resources, etc.; and fourth, data and system support, assisting the government in building and operating information platforms.

In addition to policy-based LTCI, commercial LTCI is also expected to see broad development prospects amid surging market demand and policy window benefits. The “Guiding Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Health Insurance,” issued last September, mentioned accelerating the development of commercial LTCI and income loss insurance for disability, supporting commercial long-term care insurance to provide full-term protection after retirement. The State Council’s “Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Consumption” also proposed promoting deep integration of commercial health insurance and health management to enrich the supply of commercial LTCI.

How should commercial insurance companies seize new opportunities during the expansion of LTCI? Fu Yifu stated that in product innovation, they should develop differentiated commercial LTCI products, such as those targeting specific groups or combined with health management services; in service integration, they should build a closed-loop of “assessment—care—rehabilitation,” integrating home care, community care, and institutional care resources; in ecosystem construction, they should collaborate with medical, rehabilitation, and elderly care institutions to create service networks, exploring models like “Insurance + Services + Technology,” such as using smart devices to monitor and prevent disability risks, forming a comprehensive long-term care service system covering prevention, compensation, and support.