The cost of health insurance in China

Posted on Jul 28, 2016 by Rob McBroom

Pacific Prime China is happy to announce that we have released the 2016 version of our Cost of Health Insurance Report. This report, available to download now for FREE from our website, aims to provide expats, business owners, and HR managers a look at what they can expect to pay for individual international health insurance in 95 countries.

For the 2016 report, we took the valuable feedback from clients and staff regarding what they would like to see covered and have subsequently implemented a number of improvements that we feel make the report not only easier to read, but also highlight the most important and relevant information to our readers.

From the data generated and the changes made to the layout of the Cost of Health Insurance Report 2016, we have been able to develop a report that focuses on four primary aspects that Pacific Prime feels all readers will find valuable.

 

Aspect 1: Ranking the top 20 most expensive and bottom 5 least expensive locations

The leading aspect of this year's report is our ranking of the top 20 most expensive and bottom 5 least expensive locations for international health insurance. This ranking takes an aggregate of all the data used for the report to create an average cost for all of the 95 countries featured in this year's report.

The data used to generate this year's premiums includes 10 insurers who each offer three levels of coverage (inpatient only; inpatient + outpatient; inpatient + outpatient + maternity). For each of these three types of plans, we pulled the premium charged for four demographics:

• Single plans - For a 36-year-old male

• Plans for couples - For a 36-year-old male and a 35-year-old female.

• Plans for families - For a 36-year-old male, 35-year-old female and two children aged 5 and 10.

• Plans for retirees - For a male aged 60

When we averaged the premiums for each demographic, we came up with an average cost of health insurance for each location. This year, as was expected, the US leads the pack with the most expensive average premium of USD 17,335. Mali is the least expensive with an average premium of USD 7,608.  

In 2016's report, China has been ranked as the third most expensive location with an average cost of USD 10,881 for international medical insurance. Of course, this includes a wide variety of premiums for many different ages, and in the Appendix section of the report, we include a complete ranking of the average cost for each demographic. Download the report today to learn how China is ranked for the different demographics!  

 

Aspect 2: In-depth analysis of this year's data

When analyzing this year's data, we uncovered three major themes that have had an impact on the results of this year's report. These three themes being:

• A number of interesting countries increased in rank.

• There was a decrease in the gap between premiums in the US and premiums in other countries.

• There was an overall decrease in the average cost of medical insurance in the US.

Because we believe that these changes have a large impact on the results and the future cost of health insurance, we have provided an in-depth analysis in the report. What's more, we have also included an analysis of the four key drivers of the cost of international health insurance in an effort to explain why prices are generally increasing. You will find this part of the analysis on the website while the full analysis is included in the PDF version of the report.

 

Aspect 3: A new website

The 2015 Cost of Health Insurance Report was a PDF only report, but for the 2016 report we decided to improve the interactivity and readability of the report and have launched a website with a large portion of the information available in the PDF version of the report. From the ranking to the first part of our analysis our website provides the most relevant information you will need.

In the coming weeks, we will also be launching a second, interactive, web-only part of the report which presents the cost of health insurance on a regional basis. We have grouped the average costs for each of the four major demographics together by region to allow for quick and easy comparison.

 

Aspect 4: An optimized PDF

In an effort to present the most relevant information to expats, business owners, and HR teams, we have also improved upon the way the data has been presented. In 2015's report we had three different parts that, while useful, may have presented a daunting amount of data to some. This year we have just one PDF, which looks at the average costs for the main demographics, the average overall ranking, and our analysis.

The report is available now on our website and to download for FREE. Get your copy today.