Recently, Zhonghui Property and Casualty Mutual Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhonghui Mutual"), the first national mutual insurance organization, released its 2023 annual report. As of December 31, 2023, Zhonghui Mutual has achieved a total of 951.85 million yuan in original premium income, an increase of 17% over the same period of last year, a comprehensive investment return rate of 3.94%, and an annual net profit of 80.53 million yuan.
In its 7th year of operation, as a mutual insurance company, Zhonghui Mutual has posted a beautiful "report card", its premium income and net profit in 2023 have both hit a record high, achieving the best results since its opening, with more than 2 million members, continuous improvement of business indicators, rising premium income, development momentum has always been good, the quality and efficiency of member services have been significantly improved, and the characteristics of "membership system" have become more and more prominent, answering the new path of mutual inclusive insurance with solid high-quality development achievements.
1. Emphasize the attributes of inclusiveness, and the mutual mechanism is in line with the pulse of the times
Judging from the annual report, one of the biggest highlights of Zhonghui Mutual in 2023 is the further expansion of its mutual characteristic business scale. According to statistics, there are currently more than 10 mutual projects in operation, covering more than 500,000 person-times, mainly for specific groups such as "one old and one young", chronic diseases, truck drivers, new citizens, etc., which fully reflects the attribute of "inclusive finance".
Li Jing, chairman of Zhonghui Mutual, pointed out that in the current environment, the mutual insurance mechanism is in line with the pulse of the development of the times.
The first is to benefit the public and return to the source of protection. Each policyholder of mutual insurance is a member, Zhonghui Mutual aims to improve the protection and welfare of all members, provides pure risk protection products, with an average premium of less than 700 yuan, with simple, flexible and affordable insurance products and diversified, personalized insurance services, more efficient publicity and promotion, expand insurance coverage, meet the needs of the people's medical expense protection, in order to cope with major risk expenditures, with significant inclusive attributes.
The second is to segment the market and provide specialized risk solutions. Mutual insurance can continue to be cultivated in specific industries and groups, effectively give full play to the unique mechanisms of mutual insurance such as "co-construction and co-governance" of members, design more targeted insurance products, do a good job in risk reduction management, provide full-cycle and full-chain insurance protection, and serve the national strategy, the real economy, and the society and people's livelihood.
The Central Financial Work Conference proposed to speed up the construction of a financial power. The State Administration of Financial Supervision stressed that it is necessary to always adhere to the fundamental purpose of financial services for the real economy, guide the property insurance industry to support the real economy to do a good job in five major articles, and help achieve common prosperity with inclusive finance. Under the guidance of the policy, Zhonghui actively explores the construction of an inclusive insurance product system.
In Guangxi, the United Trade Union relies on medical insurance and mutual assistance for employees' serious illnesses to customize the "Guangxi Employees' Self-paid Medical Security Plan", extend supplementary medical insurance services, and promote the orderly connection of multi-level medical security. Its products are very inclusive, with no restrictions on health conditions and pre-existing conditions, and the insurance conditions are relaxed, with a total of nearly 400,000 insured people;
In the face of the deepening aging of the mainland, Zhonghui Mutual and public welfare organizations launched the "Ten Thousand Households Health" public welfare project to provide protection for the elderly with chronic diseases under the age of 100. In addition, it has successively developed nearly 20 accidental, medical and critical illness products for the elderly, covering more than 100,000 people, in order to improve the anti-risk ability of the elderly. Especially different from traditional insurance, Shenzhen Zhonghuibao has mutual genes, and local insured residents can enjoy rights and interests to increase the amount insured, provide insurance assistance and value-added services, benefiting a total of 150,000 person-times, and the cumulative amount of allocated insurance coverage reaches about 1.7 billion.
Many practices of Zhonghui Mutual have proved that mutual insurance, which is oriented to maximizing the value of members and mutual assistance, is highly consistent with the direction of the construction of the socialist system in the mainland, and is the natural choice for the development orientation of inclusive insurance in the mainland.
2 Focus on individual customers to meet the new needs of medical insurance
For insurance companies, customers are undoubtedly the most core asset. Since its opening, Zhonghui Mutual has focused on individual customers and provided inclusive and refined all-round services.
Behind its business strategy, it relies on a huge membership group. Up to now, Zhonghui has a total of more than 2.45 million members, and has formed a stable member group, of which individual members account for nearly 99%.
In terms of product supply for individual customers, Zhonghui Mutual has built a "moat" around short-term health insurance, especially in the field of special disease insurance. Its three-high version of millions of medical, kidney disease, hepatitis B and other products have a good market reputation, bringing reliable, high-quality, and whole-process medical and health security services to members. In 2023, Zhonghui Mutual Health Insurance business will achieve a premium income of 906.85 million yuan, accounting for 95.27%, an increase of 23.28% over the previous year, and achieving positive growth for 7 consecutive years. As a company with a high proportion of health insurance business, Zhonghui Mutual also ushered in a significant optimization of underwriting profits, with an annual net profit of more than 80 million yuan and a comprehensive cost ratio of 96.53%, of which the health insurance business achieved an underwriting profit of 15.26 million yuan, steadily entering the profit cycle.
Correspondingly, in the channel operation of individual customers, Zhonghui adheres to the "two-legged" walk and adheres to the traditional business chassis such as economy and Internet. At the same time, accelerating the expansion of the scale of each other's characteristic businesses, finding new business blue oceans in the fierce market competition, obtaining new business space, and achieving positive growth for seven consecutive years have become the main driving force for business growth and high-quality development.
According to Li Jing, chairman of Zhonghui Mutual, "we have firmly established the strategy of developing inclusive medical and health insurance, focusing on individual customers, continuously precipitating the number of members, improving digital risk control capabilities, broadening channels and member service capabilities, and making a leap from quantitative to qualitative changes in our operating capabilities." ”
3. Member-centric, consolidate the path of high-quality development
Under the situation of increasingly strict market competition, as a small and medium-sized characteristic insurance company with mutual system, how does Zhonghui Mutual achieve rapid and high-quality development?
As a "membership" insurance company, Zhonghui Mutual always puts the rights and interests of members first, actively fulfills its social responsibilities, and effectively protects the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and its mutual insurance governance mechanism also plays an important role in member services. In 2023, Zhonghui has organized more than 10 member activities for each other, allowing members to fully participate in the decision-making of major matters such as product development and upgrading, operation management, etc., through various forms such as member meetings, general meetings, member service evaluations, and opinion solicitation, so as to effectively improve business processes and improve service quality, and fully safeguard the dual rights and interests of members as consumers and owners.
In terms of improving service capabilities, Zhonghui Mutual has given priority to the transformation to C-end services, built a claim service entrance with 26 cooperative institutions, and built online real-time direct claims based on insurance types and medical scenarios, so as to achieve a convenient direct claim experience of second-level settlement, no advance payment, and no waiting, and the self-service reporting rate has increased to more than 90%, and the quality and efficiency of member services have been improved. According to the "Zhonghui Mutual 2023 Member Service Annual Report", the annual cumulative service of 890,000 members, a year-on-year increase of 32%, provided 140,000 claims services, 85,000 claims, 24-hour case settlement rate of more than 80%, and tens of thousands of families enjoy inclusive security services.
In addition, Zhonghui Mutual focuses on digital risk control capacity building, relying on cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, and cooperating with external suppliers to customize the "intelligent underwriting + intelligent claims + digital risk control + self-service claims" system, reshaping all links of the insurance value chain, supporting the company's steady operation, sustainable and healthy development, and ensuring that the interests of members are fully protected. At the same time, it focuses on health and medical scenarios, hires medical professionals, conducts scientific underwriting and claims, and creates a precise risk control model to meet customers' risk protection and service needs to the greatest extent. Its latest solvency ratio is 422.34%, which continues to maintain a high level.
According to the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Inclusive Finance" issued by the State Council, the goal of high-quality development of inclusive finance is clarified. The State Administration of Financial Supervision made a detailed interpretation, emphasizing the need to give full play to the role of inclusive insurance in protecting people's livelihood. As a mutually structured insurance company, Zhonghui Mutual has had inclusive genes since its "birth", and also carries a lot of attention and ardent hopes from regulators, the industry and the market. After seven years of practice, Li Jing concluded, "We have explored the root cause of mutual insurance and found a suitable soil for inclusive finance. Only by exploring the advantages of mutual insurance model and mechanism, solving the unmet needs of specific fields and specific groups of people, providing good membership services, and protecting the rights and interests of consumers, can we embark on a path of high-quality development and help the implementation of a financial power. ”