Zhu Minglai: Vigorously Develop Group Medical Supplementary Insurance

Against the backdrop of the basic formation of China's multi-level healthcare security system framework, how enterprises can build a more efficient and sustainable employee health security system has become a key focus of attention from all sectors of society.

Professor Zhu Minglai, Director of the Health Economics and Medical Security Research Center at Nankai University, recently stated that China's commercial health insurance is at a critical inflection point for scale growth. Reforming group supplementary medical insurance is an important breakthrough to solve the current predicament. "It is recommended to clarify the institutional positioning of group supplementary medical insurance, optimize fiscal and tax incentive policies, and establish a standardized product system; the insurance industry should develop stratified and categorized group supplementary medical insurance products; build public data and health insurance trading platforms to improve market service efficiency and reduce insurance operating costs."

Currently, the institutional framework, with basic medical insurance as the mainstay and coordinated development of various forms of security, has created a favorable environment for enterprises to build supplementary health security. Zhu Minglai believes that health security has transcended the traditional scope of supplementary medical care, gradually becoming a core tool for enterprises to attract, motivate, and retain talent, and plays an important role in enhancing organizational resilience and optimizing operational efficiency. He believes, "For employees, comprehensive health security not only reduces the medical burden but also promotes the improvement of their health awareness and quality of life; for enterprises, systematic investment in health can effectively attract and retain talent, and directly enhance the enterprise's operational efficiency and risk resilience."

However, the initial establishment of the framework is just the starting point. How to make it fairer, more efficient, and better suited to diverse needs is the challenge currently faced by corporate health security systems. Zhu Minglai analyzed that the challenges are mainly reflected in three aspects: on the enterprise side, uneven distribution of resources between regions coexists with cost and budget pressures; on the market side, product homogeneity and insufficient innovative supply are prominent problems; on the institutional side, there is a lack of efficient connection between various types of security.

Not long ago, Cigna & CMC Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cigna & CMC") and the Economic Information Daily/Xinhua Health Platform under Xinhua News Agency (hereinafter referred to as "Xinhua Health") jointly released the "2025 White Paper on the Development of Corporate Health Security in China" (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"), conducting in-depth discussions from multiple perspectives such as policy, market, and corporate practices. As one of the guiding experts for the White Paper, Zhu Minglai commented that this report not only analyzes the latest trends and practices in corporate health security, providing detailed data and cases, but also innovatively proposes product and service system solutions centered on group insurance.

"Driven by both policy support and demand upgrading, the corporate health security system is evolving towards diversification and refinement. However, it still requires collaboration among multiple parties such as the government, enterprises, and insurance institutions to promote the continuous improvement of the multi-level healthcare security system," he said.