My health has been deteriorating over the past few years, with a series of minor problems. Every time I go to the hospital for a checkup or treatment, I pay out of pocket. My employee medical insurance lapsed long ago. I do pay the urban and rural resident medical insurance every year, but the outpatient coverage is so low that it barely helps. Of course, I still hope my family and I stay safe and healthy. Never needing to use insurance would be the best outcome.
Before the New Year, I began to think about whether I should buy commercial insurance for my parents and myself to shift some of the family's financial risk. The premiums might cost a month's salary or more, which made me hesitate.
After thinking it over repeatedly, I realized that car insurance alone costs several thousand yuan a year. Why not spend several thousand yuan a year on insurance for myself and my parents? Is a human life worth less than a car? My parents are getting older, and I do not have enough financial strength to bear unknown future risks, so buying insurance still seemed necessary.
I know that claim payments from insurers are not easy to obtain; insurance companies are profit-driven. But buying insurance at least brings some hope. If a claim ever has to be settled through litigation, that is still a form of protection.
During the Chinese New Year, I spent a month researching insurance plans and told my parents about my idea. Because most commercial insurance requires health disclosure, I first had to understand their health conditions. They cooperated and dug out old medical records. Some reports were still there; others may have been lost because of the passage of time or because they were never put online. With no time to investigate at every hospital, I could only ask them orally about the general range of their illnesses.
They refused to be insured. They thought insurance was unreliable and that spending several thousand yuan a year on an intangible product was not worthwhile. I explained that insurance is similar to urban and rural resident medical insurance: the former is a commercial arrangement, while the latter is a state-provided benefit.
During my research I also learned about the insurance brokerage industry. The products I wanted were jointly launched by insurance companies and insurance brokers and could only be purchased on the brokers' official websites.
I browsed Xiaohongshu and Douyin and picked up some knowledge about insurance product features. Every product has its advantages and disadvantages, and I found it hard to choose. While I was hesitating, I contacted several insurance brokers, including Xiaoyusan, Huize, Shuidibao, and Mingya. I told them about our health conditions and asked them to recommend suitable products. Most of the products they recommended did not fit us: either the premiums were too high or they were too low. This made me realize how important a good insurance broker is. A good broker can recommend products that truly suit us and can also offer some help during the claims process, rather than just closing a sale and earning a commission without recommending suitable products to the policyholder.
At first I had considered cancer insurance, but an insurance broker told me that cancer insurance has a narrower scope of protection. If we were eligible for medical insurance, we should choose medical insurance if possible.
In the end, I bought ZhongAn Insurance's 'Zhongmin Bao' for my parents and myself. It is a million-yuan medical insurance product with no health disclosure requirement and no occupation restrictions. Although ZhongAn's reputation is not great, for people with underlying health conditions it may be the only option. I also bought Shuidibao's 'Cruiser' product and Asia Pacific Property & Casualty's 'Qilin Bao No.1' accident insurance. My father's occupation is category 6 and he is over 55, so there are few accident insurance options for him. I have not insured him yet and am still researching. Because my financial situation is limited, I am not considering critical illness insurance for now.
There is another type of insurance on the market: Huimin Bao, jointly launched by insurance companies and local governments. I cannot buy it where my household registration is because it is still being piloted in other places. This insurance focuses on major illnesses, and the deductible is 20,000 to 40,000 yuan after medical reimbursement. Its advantage is that it does not restrict past medical history or occupation; its disadvantage is the high deductible. It is suitable as a backstop.
Finally, I am still thinking about one question: as the population ages and the birth rate remains persistently low, will delayed retirement be implemented? Is it still necessary for me to pay employee social security? This is a question worth pondering.