Industry: Inclusive Insurance Supports a Resilient Future

People’s Daily reporter Huang Sheng

Women’s health insurance can help ease the treatment pressure for women diagnosed with cancer; inclusive employers’ liability insurance can pay compensation for work-related injuries suffered by covered employees, reducing business operating risk; agricultural inclusive insurance can provide corresponding compensation to grain farmers who suffer production reduction due to drought, helping make up for planting losses……

At present, inclusive insurance is moving from the “broad coverage” stage to a “high-quality” phase of development. In the “15th Five-Year Plan plus the 16th Five-Year Plan” period, how can inclusive insurance become a risk barrier that ordinary people can trust and help shape a resilient future?

At the recent 2026 Inclusive Finance Conference of the Geneva Association, representatives from the insurance industry jointly discussed how to combine the development of inclusive insurance with the creation of social value. Through means such as product innovation, expanding distribution channels, data analytics, regulation, and public policy, they aim to better leverage the insurance mechanism to promote global economic security and long-term social resilience.

As the world’s largest emerging insurance market, China’s innovative practices in the field of inclusive insurance provide important references for global development. Jad ARISS, Secretary General of the Geneva Association, said that inclusive finance is the ability of individuals and enterprises to access affordable financial products and services. It is a cornerstone for economic growth and social development. He hopes to build a global communication and cooperation platform for inclusive insurance to share development experience, overcome development challenges, and enable inclusive insurance to better benefit more groups around the world that lack adequate protection.

Ding Xiangqun, Chairman of PICC, said that it is necessary to actively play the role of insurance as an economic shock absorber and a social stabilizer. In areas of inclusive insurance such as agricultural insurance, medical and pension coverage, protection for small and micro enterprises, and catastrophe insurance, the country should explore and carry out practical efforts. In 2025, PICC will provide risk protection of 1188 trillion yuan, serving 1.68 billion people (person-times), with compensation amounts exceeding 1700 billion yuan. With solid measures, it will do a substantial piece of work to develop inclusive finance.

Zhao Yulong, Chairman of the China Insurance Industry Association, said that successful inclusive insurance needs to meet three major core requirements: first, it must be reachable, affordable, and sustainable—this is the foundation at the operational level; second, social recognition must be harmonious, clarifying the relationship between “inclusive” and “benefit,” between the market and the government, and between inclusive insurance and financial stability; third, it must be institutionalized, becoming an important component of comprehensive financial services, social governance, and the building of a resilient country—so that inclusive insurance becomes citizens’ basic financial right.

Kai-Uwe Schanz, Chief Research Officer for Inclusive Finance at the Geneva Association, believes that inclusive insurance can provide broad protection, unique risk diversification, and risk-sharing mechanisms, which are crucial in reshaping the risk landscape.

In the view of Pan Gaofeng, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of China Post Life Insurance, the key to the success of inclusive insurance is that it is both inclusive and beneficial, and that it delivers results on the ground. “Inclusive” means achieving low cost and broad coverage, quickly reaching all kinds of groups; “beneficial” means providing appropriately adequate coverage at low premiums, reducing operating and risk-control costs; ultimately, so that people have a real sense of gain and truly realize that “insurance makes life better.”

Xing Li, a researcher at the China Inclusive Finance Research Institute of Renmin University of China, believes that whether inclusive insurance succeeds or not is related to the stage of development. The core is to ensure that the public can afford it, can obtain it, can use it well, and that it can be sustained in the long term. At the same time, it must have social value, addressing the protection needs of groups such as women, the elderly, and small and micro enterprises, and it should form synergy with inclusive finance such as credit. Meeting most of the core indicators means success.

Many industry practitioners have proposed pathways for the high-quality development of inclusive insurance: targeting new urban residents, small and micro enterprises, and the elderly, and developing high cost-performance products that combine online and offline approaches; using big data and AI to optimize risk control, claims, and services to lower operating costs and tackle service challenges in remote areas and for elderly groups; breaking down data silos between industries and departments to provide support for product pricing, innovation, and risk control; adhering to the consumer perspective, standardizing operations and strengthening communication, conducting financial education, and improving the public’s insurance literacy and the industry’s recognition.