Insurer Ping An aims to fill gaps in China’s ‘underresourced’ health system, to spend up to US$4 billion on health care tech development
- By helping China’s public health and social insurance systems, company will also be able to better grow its health insurance and online health care businesses, co-chief executive says
- Ping An has already spent about 20 billion yuan on health care technology over the past decade
Ping An Insurance (Group), China’s largest insurer by market value, said on Tuesday that it will spend 20 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion) on developing health care related technology over the next five years to fill the missing links in the country’s “underresourced” health system.
By helping China’s public health and social insurance systems improve efficiency and lower costs, the Shenzhen-based company will also be able to better grow its health insurance and online health care businesses, co-chief executive Jessica Tan Sin-yin said.
“For us, to deliver good health care services to our consumers, it is not enough to just provide insurance, or a simple online diagnostic service,” she said during the company’s first health care-themed investor day event. “We need to work hand in hand with the offline network, because this is where the bulk of the health care services are delivered.”
The company has already spent about 20 billion yuan on health care technology over the past decade, and the investment will grow for years to come, as it seeks to digitally link patients, doctors, medical institutions, governments and the social health insurance system, Tan said.
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