The questions that come up in almost every first conversation, answered without hedging.
Your employer enrols you in the statutory employee social insurance scheme, which covers the basic layer. Most people add commercial cover because statutory cover does not cover private hospital rooms, advanced treatment, or the full cost of a serious illness. There are also cases where your home country's social security agreement changes what you pay — worth checking before you buy anything.
In general, a Chinese citizen who keeps their nationality can continue contributing to the basic pension scheme while abroad, and can apply for the pension once they reach the statutory retirement age, subject to the contribution and residence rules of the local scheme. Whether an individual can complete the contribution personally, without a mainland employing entity, varies by locality — check with the local social insurance bureau before you assume.
No. Basic medical insurance does not pay for treatment incurred abroad, and cross-border filing channels do not cover overseas providers either. What it can do is settle treatment obtained when you return to mainland China, once you have filed for cross-provincial outpatient settlement and used a designated institution. For cover that travels with you, private medical insurance is the mechanism.
Usually yes, but the conditions are specific rather than generic. Common requirements include a work visa or residence permit, a permanent residence card, or a fixed residential address in mainland China. Some plans suspend cover once you have spent a long period outside mainland China. Premium is generally paid from the policyholder's own account, and an intermediary may not collect it from the client's account.
Savings-oriented products are generally more accessible to overseas buyers than pure protection products, because they depend less on residence conditions. Payment still has to work — premium normally comes from an account in the applicant's own name, and the remittance has to comply with individual foreign exchange rules. If a policy has cash value, it also falls within the scope of automatic exchange of tax information.
Sometimes, and the honest answer is often no. International plans are usually built for treatment outside China and often exclude or cap treatment in mainland Chinese hospitals. The gap that a mainland policy fills is specific: private wards, mainland direct-settlement networks, mainland drug and procedure costs. If your existing plan already covers treatment in mainland China at a comparable level, the marginal case is thin.
No. Premium is paid by the policyholder directly to the insurer, from the policyholder's own account. An intermediary is not permitted to collect premium from a client's account, and we do not hold client funds.
InsureTourChina is a private website operated by an individual registered as an insurance sales practitioner, working within the authorisation of a licensed insurance institution. The site is not an insurance company and not an insurance intermediary. The practitioner's name, registration number and affiliated institution are published on the compliance page, and you can verify them on the regulator's public registers.
No. We explain what each product category means, what the wording does, and what your own situation implies — but the choice of product, the amount of cover and the application itself are yours, made with the insurer. We do not run a premium calculator, quote a price, or submit an application in your name.
No, and no one honest can. What we do is make sure the file is complete and the process is followed, and we explain what the wording actually says. Claim outcomes depend on the terms of the contract and the facts of the case.
It is the single most consequential part of any application. Answering inaccurately can void the contract, and insurers do check. The good news is that disclosed conditions often lead to exclusion or an adjusted premium rather than outright refusal — but only if you disclose them.
Statutorily, the insurer has up to 30 days to settle a claim where the case is complex, and pays within 10 days of reaching agreement. In practice, the long pole is usually document completeness, not the insurer's clock.
We explain how social insurance records interact with residence and work permit applications, because the link is real and often misunderstood. We do not file immigration applications. For that you need a licensed immigration service.
For most mainland policies, the premium must be debited from an account in the policyholder's own name, which in practice means a mainland bank account. If you do not have one, that becomes step one, and it is worth arranging before you apply.
The plan has to work where you actually receive treatment. If you are in one city and hospitalised in another, check whether the plan's designated network covers the second city, and whether your filing and reimbursement arrangements cross provincial lines.
Premium depends on age, occupation, sum insured, the plan structure and the insurer's own pricing, so any figure we gave you before understanding those would be guesswork. The first conversation is about your situation; the numbers come after that.
Send the form on the contact page, or message us on WhatsApp. We reply with a short set of questions about your situation, then come back with a written brief. Nothing is submitted to an insurer until you decide to proceed.
Cover tied to a residence permit or work visa can be affected when the document lapses. Some plans treat a long period outside mainland China, or the loss of a valid permit, as a change of residence that suspends cover for overseas expenses. Tell the insurer before the permit lapses, not after, and read the residency clause in your own contract.
Yes, a beneficiary can be resident anywhere. But a beneficiary abroad raises payment routing and tax-reporting questions — the insurer will need their details, and a payout to a non-resident may be reported under automatic exchange rules. Name them formally in the policy rather than only in a will.
Where the claim is still within the limitation period, yes. We review the contract, list the documents your specific case needs, confirm the submission route and keep the file moving. The claim itself is filed by you with the insurer; we do not file it in your name.
CRS is the international framework under which financial accounts, including some insurance policies with cash value, are reported automatically to tax authorities. Whether a specific policy is in scope depends on its structure and where it is issued. We do not give tax advice; for a cross-border position, take advice from a professional who can see your whole situation.
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If your question is not here, it is probably because it depends on your specific situation. That is exactly what the brief is for.
Insurance sales on this site are conducted by Chen Gaolun (陈高论) (practitioner registration no. 20346833000082102026001331), a registered insurance sales practitioner of 手回保险代理有限公司（Shouhui Insurance Agency Co., Ltd.） (licence no. 203468000000800), acting within the scope of that institution's authorisation. Products are underwritten by the insurers named in the policy contract; eligibility, premiums and exclusions are governed by that contract. Premium is paid by the policyholder directly to the insurer or the licensed institution — never through this site. Nothing here is a quotation, a recommendation to buy, or a promise of coverage or of claim outcome.