China Life: Giving full paly to the power of insurance to help targeted poverty alleviation

Company profile
 
China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (“China Life” or “the Company”) is the largest life insurance company in China, with its headquarters located in Beijing. China Life is a core member of China Life Insurance (Group) Company, which is one of the Fortune Global 500 companies and one of the World’s Top 500 Brands. China Life is a well-regarded insurer with along history, solid financial strength, a strong competitive edge and a well-known brand name. The Company has been a leading player in the life insurance market in China since its establishment. 
 
China Life is a leading provider of individual and group life insurance, annuity, and accident and health insurance in China. With a controlling stake in China Life Pension Company Ltd. and significant stakes in China Life Property and Casualty Insurance Company Ltd., the Company has gradually expanded into other insurance-related areas.
 
Challenges
 
It's has already been an indisputable fact that there is a blank of insurance securities in poor areas. Most of the poor cannot avoid risks with insurances due to a weak purchasing ability and a lack of scientific understanding to insurance. Statistics from a new round of precise identification of poor households and file building show that diseases, disasters and accidents are the main causes of poverty. Therefore, it's the main responsibility of the insurance industry to prevent the poor to become poorer or return to poverty because of diseases and personal accident casualties.
 
Solutions
 
As a large-scale state-owned financial and insurance enterprise, China Life has always seen “fulfilling its social responsibility to promote the improvement of people’s livelihood” as an important mission, and has actively aggregated industry resources, actively promoted various types of insurance products to cater for government poverty alleviation strategies and continued to expand the field of insurance services, innovated in the development methods of poverty alleviation for targeted groups. It also improved the targeted poverty alleviation and extensive participation mechanism to help local targeted poverty alleviation.
 
Developing micro-insurance business and expanding the supply of poverty alleviation insurance.
 
China Life Insurance is one of the first insurance companies developing micro-insurance business in rural areas. It is devoted to promoting micro-insurances at optimal level of security, with low premium and easy to understand. Through years of attempts and efforts, the company has gradually expanded rural micro-insurance to low-income groups in cities and towns and has made positive achievements in rendering the low-income groups to be able to afford, have access to and be willing to buy insurances.
 
Conducting major disease insurance business to facilitate poverty alleviation.
 
China Life Insurance responds actively to the policies of transferring major disease insurance liability to the poor made by some provinces and cities. It has taken a series of measures, including lowering the deductible line, improving the payment proportion and enhancing the cap line to expand the coverage of insurance targeted at the poor, thus improving the security level of individuals. The company also develops the first specialized major disease insurance information system, provides one-stop payment service and spares the insured to pay medical expenses in advance. Meanwhile, the company arranges a professional service team including members settling in the hospital to propagandize medical insurance policies, to assist with hospital procedures and go for impatient visits, thus making the insured benefit from the nation's various preferential policies and improving their hospitalizing experience.
 
Providing free insurance to assist targeted poverty alleviation.
 
China Life Insurance attempts to do well in providing various personal accident insurances and guarantees for migrant workers from poor households, such as innovating in the thinking of using insurance to alleviate poverty, increasing input, and providing personal accident insurance for targeted poverty alleviation working staff in some areas and migrant workers for free.
 
Achievements
 
Social benefits
 
Since the establishment of a new round of fixed-point poverty assistance relationship in December 2012, China Life Insurance has invested a poverty alleviation fund of 36,150,000 yuan in the past 4 years. Among these, 10,050,000 yuan is used as special insurance poverty alleviation fund, purchasing accident insurance for 90,000 migrant workers and rural micro life insurance for 3, 5000 residents living in the frontiers and 170,000 peasants. The indemnity can be as high as 460,000 yuan. In total, 335,000 people will benefit from it.
 
The company has cooperated with the governments in over 200 cities and launched more than 250 major disease insurance programs covering 420 million urban and rural residents. It has paid more than 26 billion of indemnity for over 10 million people accumulatively. The proportion of reimbursement for patients with a serious illness has improved more than 10 percentages on the basis of basic medical insurance, which solves a big problem for patients suffering from serious disease.
 
The company also provides a package of poverty alleviation insurances like poverty alleviation insurance. There have been many excellent practices, such as the poverty alleviation insurance in Ningxia, the insurances targeted at the households enjoying the minimum living guarantee and the five guarantees and orphans in the rural areas in Gansu, as well as the poverty alleviation insurance in Chongqing. It has concluded a sustainable and reproducible business model of using insurance to alleviate poverty.
 
Economic benefits
 
The company's ability to serve the overall interests has enhanced gradually, and its policy-related businesses are proceeding orderly. The premium for major disease insurance has reached 13.3 billion yuan, witnessing a year-on-year increase of 36%. It has won the bidding of 35 retendered programs and 33 newly added bidding projects, run more than 250 major disease insurance programs accumulatively, and served over 420 million people.
 
Prospect
 
There is a great advantage in convenient insurance, efficient operation, and strong targeting of contractors for poverty alleviation through insurance, which not only can help the poor to control and manage the predictable or unpredictable risks, but also can meet their multiple insurance needs and help them out of poverty. In the future, China Life, based on industry characteristics and the reality, will directly or indirectly to implement “targeted poverty alleviation” and carry out fixed-point poverty alleviation work to provide strong support for the economic and social development of poverty-stricken areas.