Mutual treasure is also shut down, is mutual assistance for serious illness a scam?

Editor's Guide: In the past year, a total of 10 mutual aid platforms have been shut down, and with the closure of mutual treasure, the Internet giant mutual aid platform has all withdrawn. Many people say that mutual aid for serious illness is a scam, and the author of this article has analyzed this and hopes to help you.

The mutual aid industry has changed dramatically over the past year. After Mutual Treasure announced its closure, a total of 10 mutual aid platforms will be shut down in 2021, and all the mutual aid platforms of the Internet giant have withdrawn.

Everyone is accustomed to calling the mutual aid guarantee a network mutual aid, which also makes many people confuse it with the financial mutual aid of 3M and Shanxinhui, and mistakenly believe that it is an Internet financial pyramid scheme platform that encourages the development of members and gives rewards. In fact, it is more appropriate to call the mutual aid of serious illness from the perspective of function and value.

Many people say that mutual aid for serious illnesses is a scam, and they understand and are helpless. Many of the problems mentioned by everyone actually exist, such as high apportionment, lack of transparency in information, difficulty in settling claims, etc.; at the same time, mutual aid users are extremely sinking, and the confusion and scolding of the apportionment price can be understood. But the ignorant accusations of many highly educated people and even insurance practitioners are very helpless. This also reflects the awareness of the awareness and principles of protection, and the professional quality of insurance personnel may not be as optimistic as expected.

Behind the "scam", there are actually several common senses: it is not that insurance does not mean that it is unreliable; high cost performance and low threshold do not mean that it is exclusive to the poor; a large increase in apportionment does not mean that it is unreasonable; refusal to pay does not mean that it is not responsible; common problems are not the original sin of mutual assistance.

First, it is not insurance≠ unreliable

Many people, especially insurance practitioners, are easy to hold the logic of "mutual aid for serious illnesses is not insurance, so it is not reliable".

Mutual aid is not insurance does not mean unreliable, mutual aid is not insurance is not important, everyone's need is after illness mutual aid can not give him a problem.

For participating users, discern the difference between mutual aid and insurance, know the possible risks, and then choose a reliable mutual aid platform.

There are many problems of mutual assistance for serious illnesses, but they are not insoluble. Although the mutual aid platform is not within the supervision scope of the state banking and insurance regulatory authority, it does not mean that it is completely unsupervised and managed, and it may face stricter supervision in the future. It is also inappropriate to measure mutual assistance with the certainty of insurance and risk control standards, and the criteria for whether insurance is reliable and whether mutual assistance is reliable may be very different.

On the other hand, many times it is precisely because mutual aid is not insurance that it appears to be reliable, there is no sales commission, no prepaid fee, low participation threshold, and information is open and transparent.

Second, it is the security of the poor, and it is also the most economical mode of security

Many people say that mutual assistance is a guarantee for the poor, which is a biased statement. It is undeniable that the low threshold for mutual assistance has attracted a large number of non-commercial insurance admission groups, such as people with abnormal health and people whose economic conditions cannot be met. According to the public data of Mutual Treasure, 79.5% of its mutual aid members with annual income of less than 100,000 yuan and 72% of them in third-tier cities and below.

This means that the product meets the needs of low- and middle-income people, but does not mean that it is only a guarantee for the poor. Among the participants in the early stage of mutual aid for serious illnesses, practitioners such as insurance agents were important components and loyal advocates. Because in the face of cost performance, middle and high income earners or elites are more shrewd.

Regardless of the industry, all competition is ultimately a battle for efficiency. Extreme efficiency gives mutual aid to serious illnesses still have long-term advantages, and mutual aid is still one of the most economical guarantee models.

This can be corroborated by the data on the utilization of funds. Of the 100 yuan premium for commercial insurance, only 30 yuan will be used to claim users; that is, the other 70% of the money is spent on marketing, channels, management costs and so on. In contrast, the efficiency of the use of funds for mutual aid for serious illnesses can reach more than 90%.

Third, it is not "many people have great strength", but "many people are stable"

Insurance is the most difficult business in the financial industry, and from the actual operation point of view, the operation difficulty of the mutual aid model for serious illnesses is even higher.

Even if the annual cost is lower than most of the one-year critical illness insurance, because users are extremely sinking, their lack of knowledge of common sense and protection principles still pushes the mutual aid platform to the cusp.

There is an important common sense about the mutual aid sharing of each period: it is not that the more participants participate, the lower the sharing.

Theoretically, the money apportioned by 10,000 and 100 million people per period under the established rules should be the same. The difference is that when there are 10,000 people, the risk of chance will be very large, and even the extreme situation of the difference in the apportionment of different periods will occur; while when there are 100 million people, the system is stable enough, and there will rarely be a large change, and the apportionment will be very stable and close to the theoretical value.

Why is the apportionment particularly small in the beginning, only a few cents?

In fact, it is caused by the mechanism of the waiting period to enter into force. When you joined, you found that there were 10 million members, and the number of people who actually passed the waiting period at that time was only 100,000; at this point in time, only these 100,000 people were sick and could get mutual assistance claims after applying, and the other 9.9 million people who did not pass the waiting period would not be paid for their illness at this time, and there was no need for everyone to share, so there would be very little apportionment at this time.

As more and more people pass through the waiting period and the proportion of members with formal mutual aid credentials increases, the apportionment begins to rise until it approaches the theoretical value.

Fourth, it is not "serious illness can get money", and it is not possible to meet the conditions for joining

The audit issue is another place that is criticized by users a lot. In the mutual aid review, the proportion of compensation denied because they do not meet the conditions for joining is very high, and the reasons behind it mostly point to "ignored health information".

For example, a user who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer requests mutual aid, but will have a rejection of the application due to high blood pressure at the time of joining. There are two points that cause controversy here: one is that the user believes that hypertension and stomach cancer cannot be beaten and cannot be used as a reason to refuse compensation; the other is that the user says that he does not know that hypertension cannot be joined, and now that the disease within the scope of mutual assistance has occurred, it should be paid.

We don't discuss whether or not to make a claim, we only talk about health information. The insurance industry has been growing in China for decades, and many consumers still don't understand the importance of health communication, or even the limitations.

In fact, it should be asked more, is this a problem in the insurance industry or a problem of mutual assistance?

Of course, I think this is where mutual assistance can break through, such as the multi-local Huimin Bao products without health notification and unlimited past symptoms, which has become a solution in this regard.

Fifth, the "death spiral" is not unique to mutual assistance and is not insoluble

The death spiral is another flaw in the mutual aid model for serious illnesses that insurance people criticize more often. In fact, the risk of death spiral exists in any form of insurance protection, and many commercial insurance such as long-term medical insurance and accident insurance are more prominent.

If there are no health requirements for participating members, the healthiest part of the population will feel very uneconomical and withdraw, resulting in the total medical expenses being shared among each person will become higher; and the increase in costs will prompt new healthy members to withdraw... In such a cycle, the final people who are left are people with poor health and a high risk of disease, which is difficult to sustain, which is the "death spiral".

The death spiral is not inevitable, in fact, the death spiral has always existed in the operational development of insurance products. Many insurance products are also avoiding the risk of a death spiral by constantly adjusting rates and insurance terms. As for mutual aid, it can also be circumvented through rules and crowd screening.

Many people often play hooligans when talking about the mutual aid model, in their inherent thinking, the mutual aid model is not feasible, there is no room for rule adjustment, and many problems are ignored.

An important fact is that mutual aid for serious illnesses has not yet gone through a full pattern cycle. The discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the pattern has not yet been fully verified.

Some people believe that the exploration of mutual assistance in serious illnesses is beneficial, but the historical mission of the stage has been completed.

Mutual assistance for serious illnesses has played a huge complementary role in the level of social medical security. A total of more than 200,000 mutual assistance has been completed, and the cumulative amount of compensation has exceeded 10 billion yuan, which has solved some or all of the medical expenses for serious illnesses for hundreds of thousands of families. Over 100 million protection and health users and the resulting behavioral data will provide more reference and data analysis basis for insurance protection and medical health.

However, in the education of insurance protection awareness, it is far from enough to complete the stage mission; even with more diversified choices, mutual assistance as a protection model, the advantages have always existed and are obvious.

The development of mutual insurance can also confirm the value and development space of mutual assistance for serious illnesses. As the insurance model closest to mutual assistance, mutual insurance itself is the existence of compliance, although the domestic mutual insurance company is not yet on the right track, but its development abroad gives the market enough confidence and direction to move forward.

(For details, see "Change or The Way Out: Mutual Insurance of Mutual Assistance and Mutual Insurance of Mutual Insurance")

When we look at mutual aid, we can try not to simply see it as an innovative model in the insurance industry, but should be classified as an Internet species, such as a typical low-end subversion. It has accomplished what the insurance industry has been trying to do for many years but has not done, and it has covered a large number of users in a short period of time, which is incomparable to the new agricultural cooperatives and huimin insurance promoted by administrative orders.

(For details, see "Mutual Treasure - Pinduoduo in the Field of Protection?") 》）

The departure of mutual treasure will not be the end of mutual assistance, but the trust environment of the entire industry has been destroyed. Those who remain may not be done well in all aspects, but they must be done well in some aspects, and the Kang Ai Commune and so on are such a existence.

For the adherents and the industry as a whole, to borrow Tagore's words – the world kisses me bitterly, and I want to repay it with a song.

#专栏作家 #

Chen Zhiheng, WeChat public account: Chen is a big man, everyone is a product manager columnist. Serial entrepreneurs, long-term focus on the research and practice of innovative guarantee models such as network mutual assistance. Traders over-serious illness fundraising, network mutual aid, Internet insurance related projects.

This article was originally published in Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited

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