Before serious illness develops, consider supplementary medical or critical-illness cover and check guaranteed renewal

For a young person, annual reimbursement-based medical cover may cost several hundred RMB, while critical-illness insurance can start at several thousand RMB annually. These are author estimates, not official price figures. Allow about half an hour to disclose your health history accurately when applying.

Chinese rules distinguish medical insurance, which reimburses actual eligible medical costs, from disease insurance, which pays a contractually specified sum when a covered disease is diagnosed. Together, these product types can address unreimbursed treatment costs and income disruption, although reimbursement and lump-sum cover work differently. A policy lasting one year or less without guaranteed renewal is short-term health insurance. A longer policy, or one with guaranteed renewal, is long-term health insurance under the cited rules. Guaranteed renewal means the insurer must continue coverage on the agreed terms and rate arrangement when the guarantee applies. Insurers must not induce the same person to buy duplicate reimbursement-based medical policies with the same or similar function: the same expense cannot be reimbursed twice. Industry-standard critical-illness definitions cover 28 severe and three mild illnesses, with malignant tumors, acute myocardial infarction, and stroke sequelae among the core conditions. The cited national framework dates from 2019 and 2020.

Grade B reflects official definitions and rules without an official estimate of how much buying a policy saves. “Million-yuan medical insurance” is a marketing label; determine whether a particular policy is short- or long-term from its duration and renewal terms. Find the guaranteed-renewal wording in the contract before buying. Two reimbursement policies cannot both repay the same expense. Existing illness and inaccurate disclosure can create claim disputes. Article 16 places a two-year limit after contract formation on rescission for nondisclosure and provides for liability when a covered insured event occurs after that limit, subject to the applicable legal and contractual conditions. This is not a reason to conceal information. Within the applicable period, deliberate nondisclosure can mean no payment for events before rescission and no refund of premiums. For which losses to insure, see losses you could not absorb yourself. Pay for resident basic medical insurance first. The critical-illness definitions are an industry-association standard produced under regulatory guidance, not a government regulation.

China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (2019). Health Insurance Management Measures, Order 2019 No. 3, Articles 2, 4, and 41. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-12/04/content_5458542.htm; Insurance Association of China and Chinese Medical Doctor Association (2020). Questions and answers on the revised critical-illness insurance definitions. https://www.iachina.cn/art/2020/11/5/art_8616_104705.html; China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (2020). Notice on use of the 2020 critical-illness incidence tables, document 2020 No. 51. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020-11/06/content_5557791.htm; Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (amended 2015). Insurance Law, Article 16, on disclosure and the two-year limit on rescission. https://flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=2c909fdd678bf17901678bf7c4060811.