How can the Huimin Bao for the price of a cup of milk tea be more attractive?

It has become popular because of its low premiums and the ability to insure even if you are sick, but it has also been complained that minor illnesses are “out of reach” because of its high deductible——

How can the Huimin Bao for the price of a cup of milk tea be more attractive?

Experts recommend implementing renewal incentives, setting up tiered products, upgrading regional coordination, and retaining healthy people through optimized design

Reading Tips

The Huimin Insurance, which is affordable and has no restrictions on age or health status, quickly became popular as soon as it was launched, with the cumulative number of insured persons exceeding 200 million. However, after years of development, some problems have begun to emerge - in recent years, many products have been discontinued, and the growth rate of insurance participation has slowed or even declined in some areas. How to maintain the bottom line of inclusiveness and maintain product sustainability? Experts suggest that efforts should be made to refine products to enhance the insured's sense of gain and retain healthy people.

“It’s worth spending 398 yuan to buy insurance for the elderly.” Recently, Mr. Wen renewed the insurance for his 77-year-old father-in-law with an upgraded version of Dalian Puhui Insurance. He told reporters that his father-in-law has underlying diseases, and there are few commercial insurance products available and the premiums are expensive. The price of inclusive insurance is close to the people, regardless of age and health status, so it is a good choice for the elderly.

However, Mr. Wen and his wife did not renew their insurance this year, but purchased a commercial insurance. He said frankly that the deductible of the inclusive insurance is 12,000 yuan. For young people and healthy people, it is difficult for the out-of-pocket expenses to exceed the deductible after being reimbursed by medical insurance for ordinary headaches and fever.

The choice made by Mr. Wen’s family is quite representative, and it also reflects the deep-seated contradictions faced in the development of Huiminbao.

Huimin Bao, the full name of urban customized commercial medical insurance, has different names in different places, such as "Pu Hui Bao", "Shanghai Hui Bao", "Hui Gui Bao", etc. This insurance is guided by the government and underwritten by commercial insurance companies. The annual premium ranges from a few dozen yuan to two to three hundred yuan. Because of its low insurance threshold and wide coverage, it has been very popular once it was launched.

However, after years of development, some problems have begun to emerge - in recent years, many Huiminbao products have been discontinued, and the growth rate of insurance participation has slowed down or even declined in some areas. Why has Huimin Bao become less attractive? If we want to better play the "supplementary" role of medical insurance, where should it go next?

Fill the gaps in medical insurance and commercial insurance

Mr. Wen did some calculations for reporters: his father-in-law has been hospitalized many times in the past two years, and Puhui Insurance paid out more than 6,500 yuan in 2025 and nearly 2,200 yuan in 2026, which reduced the family's financial burden. What makes him even more considerate is that "Inclusive insurance and medical insurance have achieved 'one-stop settlement after discharge', without the need to advance funds, and there is no need to run errands and prepare materials."

The reporter found out that since Shenzhen launched the country's first Huiminbao product in 2015, related products have been launched in many places, and the market will usher in an explosive period in 2020. Data shows that Huiminbao currently covers more than 30 provinces, and the cumulative number of insured persons has exceeded 200 million. The "2025 Urban Customized Commercial Medical Insurance (Huiminbao) Knowledge Map" released by Fudan University shows that as of the end of July 2025, a total of 313 Huiminbao products have been launched across the country, and the market is shifting from "incremental expansion" to "stock optimization."

"Huiminbao effectively connects basic medical insurance and commercial health insurance, filling the gap between the two." Talking about the original intention of launching the policy of Huiminbao, Lou Yu, a professor at the School of Civil and Commercial Economics at China University of Political Science and Law, said that on the one hand, basic medical insurance "guarantees the basics" and the level of benefits is limited. The medical insurance catalog Self-paid medicines, high-priced specialty medicines, etc. may become a heavy burden for families with serious illnesses; on the other hand, traditional commercial health insurance has high barriers to entry and often has strict restrictions on age and past medical history. It is difficult for the elderly and people with existing diseases to obtain insurance, and these groups are precisely those at high risk of serious diseases. In this regard, Huiminbao improves the accessibility of security to the masses and helps reduce the risk of poverty due to illness and return to poverty due to illness.

Lou Yu further analyzed that “improving the multi-level medical security system” has been written into the medical security law. In this system, in addition to basic medical insurance and medical assistance, other products and mechanisms are also needed to meet diverse security needs, of which Huimin Insurance is an important part.

“Low price but low value for money”

In Lou Yu’s view, after more than 10 years of development, the institutional value of Huiminbao has been fully verified, but it has also bid farewell to the period of rapid expansion.

Lou Yu analyzed that at present, most prefecture-level cities have launched Huimin Insurance, and there is no large blank market to explore. Growth can only rely on existing insurance renewals. At the same time, in the early days, many places included the participation rate of Huimin Bao in administrative assessments and relied on communities and units to mobilize participation. Subsequent policies clarified that Huimin Bao was a voluntary commercial insurance, which also led to a decline in the insurance participation rate to a certain extent.

The fact that Huimin Bao cannot be sold is also related to the design of its rules.

Chen Fei, an associate professor at the School of Law at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told reporters that Huiminbao has low premiums and limited financing scale. To ensure the operation of the product, various regions have adopted certain risk control measures, such as setting higher deductibles or minimum payment thresholds, controlling reimbursement ratios, etc. This has also led to a low sense of gain for some insured people. Data shows that currently only about 21.3% of Huiminbao products nationwide have a coverage amount of more than 1 million yuan, and 74.56% of products have a compensation ratio of 60% or less.

“The price is low, but the cost-effectiveness is also low.” In the interview, many insured people born in the 1980s and 1990s described Huiminbao as “tasteless”.

The reporter noticed that on social platforms and the Black Cat Complaint Platform, many netizens posted questions about the difficulty in distinguishing the content terms of local benefits for the people.

Lou Yu also noticed that incidents of insurance companies infringing on consumer rights often occur: “For example, in early promotions, it is easy to emphasize ‘millions of guarantees and dozens of yuan in premiums’, but there is insufficient disclosure of contract terms such as deductibles, exemptions, and restrictions on pre-existing conditions, which leads to gaps when insured people apply for claims, which in turn leads to consumer disputes.”

"For Huimin Insurance, sick insured people have a strong willingness to renew their insurance, while healthy and low-risk insured people are gradually losing, resulting in increasing pressure on insurance companies to pay compensation, and they can only lower the protection level, which will eventually affect the purchase enthusiasm of sick insured people." Lou Yu said.

From "is there any" to "is it good or not"

How to balance inclusiveness and sustainability is an issue that must be considered in the iterative upgrade of Huiminbao.

Lou Yu suggested that insurance companies in various regions should work hard on product refinement and refine plans and design benefits based on local population structure, disease spectrum, medical insurance fund status, etc. For example, in areas with a high degree of aging and a heavy burden of serious diseases, the focus is on special drugs and self-pay insurance responsibilities for hospitalization; in areas with a large young population, the insurance responsibilities can be appropriately expanded. At the same time, the insurance terms are streamlined, deductibles and pre-existing disease restrictions are clearly disclosed to establish a good reputation.

"The key is to expand the insurance base, keep more healthy groups in the risk pool through optimized design, and attract new healthy groups to join the risk pool." Chen Fei suggested implementing a renewal incentive mechanism so that continuous insured persons can enjoy preferential treatment and use treatment leverage to retain healthy people; set up a tiered product system and launch a "basic version + upgraded version" guarantee, which not only maintains the bottom line of inclusiveness but also meets the differentiated needs of different groups; consider upgrading regional coordination and gradually transition from municipal-level welfare insurance to provincial-level risk coordination.

As of now, the 2026 Benefit Insurance Scheme has taken effect in many places. In order to attract healthy groups to renew their insurance, many areas have adjusted their protection responsibilities. For example, for healthy people, "Beijing Puhui Health Insurance" has lowered the out-of-pocket threshold from 30,404 yuan to 15,000 yuan; for users who have been insured for three consecutive years and have no claims, "Shenzhen Huimin Insurance" has increased the reimbursement ratio of "expense protection within the medical insurance catalog" to 90%, and "self-paid compliance drugs for hospitalization" , consumables, diagnosis and treatment and examination and examination expense guarantee" reimbursement ratio increased to 75%; "Shanghai Huibao" has continued and upgraded the deductible preferential policy, with a basic deductible of 12,000 yuan. For customers who have been insured for two consecutive years and have no claims, the deductible will be reduced by 1,000 yuan, and for three consecutive years, the deductible will be reduced by 2,000 yuan...

Generally speaking, there are two major directions for the upgrading of Huimin Insurance in various places: first, starting from aspects such as expanding the catalog of special drugs, expanding value-added services such as health management, and opening up the personal account payment function of medical insurance to enhance the sense of gain of insured persons; second, starting from aspects such as premium grading, implementing gradient benefits, and tightening the liability for compensation for people with pre-existing conditions, optimizing the insurance structure and fund pool structure to enhance the operational resilience of Huimin Insurance products.

Lou Yu said that at present, the core contradiction in the development of Huiminbao has shifted from "whether it is available" to "whether it is good or not", from "can it be done" to "can it be done". (Reporter Chen Xi)