Can Digital and Intelligent Elder Care Be the Optimal Solution as Insurers Rush into the Aging Market?
“I still prefer to age in place at home. With today’s advanced technology, my daughter had a company install a ‘robot’ device for me. In case of an emergency, it can trigger an alarm and summon help, and I can also access various services through this ‘robot.’ Aging at home allows me to stay in a familiar environment, with old friends and neighbors right here in the residential community, which gives me great peace of mind. I have no intention of moving into a nursing home,” said 81-year-old Grandma Li to the reporter.
The elderly woman before the reporter, though with gray hair and a face lined with wrinkles, remains sharp-minded and agile in her movements. She is far from alone among seniors who prefer aging at home rather than moving into institutional care facilities. This preference aligns with China’s “9073” eldercare model, under which 90% of older adults age in place, 7% receive community-based care, and 3% reside in institutional settings. According to data from the Seventh National Population Census, China’s population aged 60 and above has reached 264 million. Consequently, approximately 237 million seniors are expected to have needs for home-based eldercare.
Faced with such a vast “blue ocean” market for elderly care, insurance companies that have encountered growth bottlenecks in recent years are flocking to enter the sector, each strategizing and positioning itself to open up new fronts in elderly care services, seeking new growth models and drivers. Although the entire insurance industry values the elderly care market, the strategies and approaches adopted by different insurers vary significantly.
Taikang was the earliest insurance-backed company to enter the elderly care sector, leveraging its heavy-asset model of high-end senior living communities as a key selling point to capture the high-net-worth client market. Subsequently, other insurers—including China Taiping, China Life, CPIC, PICC, and New China Life—have also strategically deployed their resources by integrating senior living communities with medical-nursing care and rehabilitation services. In reality, developing high-end senior living communities demands substantial capital investment, as well as significant human resource and operational costs. Given the industry’s current challenges, such as long payback periods and suboptimal occupancy rates, insurance companies that have already committed to the heavy-asset model are now turning their attention to—and gradually expanding into—the broader home-based elderly care market.
While Ping An Insurance has chosen to establish senior care institution communities, it has placed its primary focus on the home-based elderly care market. For many other insurance-funded companies, entering the home-based care segment—which accounts for 90% of the “9073” elderly care model—is undoubtedly driven by multiple considerations regarding both current realities and future trends. Recently, AIA Insurance has comprehensively upgraded its “Health and Elderly Care Steward” service. By partnering with third-party providers, such as Tianyu Elderly Care, which is renowned in the industry for its digital and intelligent senior care solutions, AIA has integrated smart home-based elderly care services, age-friendly home modifications, and health management into its offerings. These initiatives aim to address customers’ personalized elderly care needs within home settings, with a particular emphasis on safety, daily living, and health, thereby improving the living environment and quality of life for seniors and covering 90% of their elderly care scenarios.
The advantage of choosing an asset-light “home-based elderly care solution” lies in its ability to reach a broader consumer base with relatively low capital investment, while also aligning more closely with consumers’ mindset. For Chinese people, the attachment to “home” has been ingrained over millennia; factors such as the home environment, family bonds, and social relationships hold significant importance for the healthy living of older adults.
Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance has recently launched its upgraded “Comprehensive Elderly Care Services,” which include elderly care concierge services, nursing institution services, home-based elderly care services, and premium retirement community services. Aging is a gradual process, and customers’ elderly care needs are likewise progressive and diverse. In its flagship home-based elderly care segment, Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance has partnered with Tianyu Elderly Care, a leading domestic player in digital smart elderly care, to introduce three tailored service packages designed for seniors ranging from active and independent individuals to those with partial or total disabilities, thereby meeting the varied needs of different consumer groups.
For active seniors, intelligent devices address the risks of fire, gas leaks, and water intrusion—top concerns for their children and family members—complemented by online and call-center-based elderly care services. This solution covers major environmental risks in the home settings of active seniors while providing various lifestyle convenience services and emotional companionship. For older adults living alone, the corresponding package is equipped with leading millimeter-wave radar technology to proactively and intelligently detect risks such as falls and prolonged sedentary behavior. By leveraging advanced technology and high-quality services, it mitigates the risks of falls and other accidents among elderly individuals living alone, giving their children peace of mind. In fact, the “robot” mentioned by Grandma Li at the beginning of the article refers to the smart hardware installed in the homes of seniors as part of this package. Utilizing technologies such as millimeter-wave radar and human presence detection, along with backend system algorithms and support staff, it serves the elderly like an omnipresent robot within their homes.
For care packages designed for elderly individuals with partial or total disability, high-sensitivity biochip technology is integrated. Smart devices continuously monitor vital signs, including respiration, heart rate, sleep patterns, and blood flow, enabling timely detection of risks such as respiratory events, cardiac incidents, and nighttime bed exits. This allows caregivers to respond promptly to the elderly’s care needs, safeguarding their safety while significantly reducing the risk of pressure ulcers.
In these service packages, in addition to the smart hardware installed in seniors’ homes, the backend digital system also plays a fundamental and critical role. According to relevant representatives from Tianyu Elderly Care, the smart hardware uploads data in real time to the digital backend system, where algorithms process the information to enable various home-based elderly care services, including emergency alerts, emergency rescue, proactive care, information push notifications, and service-related updates.
Tianyu Elderly Care has established digitalization as the foundation of its business, building robust and comprehensive intelligent solutions upon this base. This ensures high reliability, 24/7 coverage, and consistent service quality for consumers, while achieving diminishing marginal costs to enhance efficiency and reduce expenses. For insurance companies, partnering with a leading digital smart elderly care provider enables the efficient integration of plug-and-play professional elderly care capabilities, thereby empowering their products.
In fact, for insurers such as Manulife-Sinochem and AIA, this model enables the efficient and rapid integration of elderly care services with insurance products, thereby creating high-quality retirement solutions. This approach significantly reduces time costs and trial-and-error expenses, emerging as the “optimal solution” for insurance capital to develop elderly care businesses. By leveraging this model, insurance companies can accelerate business growth and provide their agents with powerful enabling tools, thereby gaining a competitive edge in a fiercely contested market landscape.