Does COVID-2019 Have an Impact on the Purchase Intention of Commercial Long-Term Care Insurance among the Elderly in China?

Purpose: As an important measure to alleviate long-term care (LTC) costs for the disabled due to the aging of the population, long-term care insurance (LTCI) system has been paid more attention in China. In addition to the government-led public LTCI system that has been piloted in cities such as Qingdao, Chongqing and Shanghai, health insurers such as the China Life Insurance Company are also experimenting with various types of commercial LTCI in the private market. However, the commercial LTCI market is developing very slowly due to public awareness and other reasons. On the other hand, COVID-2019 has had an impact on the cognition of the importance of long-term care for the elderly due to the fact that the death cases of COVID-2019 have been mainly concentrated in the elderly population with chronic diseases such as hypertension. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the differences in the purchase intention of commercial LTCI among the elderly in two different periods: before and after the outbreak of COVID-2019. Methods: By using the Andersen behavioral model and two investigations in two different periods before and after the outbreak of COVID-2019, this study explores the impacts of COVID-2019 on the purchase intention of commercial LTCI. Results: Some significant discoveries were found. For example, 25.8% of interviewees showed purchase intention in LTCI in the time before the COVID-2019 outbreak, while this proportion increased to 37.6% after the COVID-2019 outbreak. People who were younger (OR = 2.128, before COVID-2019; OR = 1.875, after COVID-2019) or who had more education (OR = 1.502, before COVID-2019; OR = 2.218, after COVID-2019) were more interested in commercial LTCI. Conclusion: This study shows that COVID-2019 has had an obvious impact on the purchase intention of commercial LTCI, which provides some enlightenment for China to improve the LTCI system in the future, especially to accelerate the development of commercial LTCI. For example, it is essential to promote the importance of long-term care among the elderly in a focused and targeted way. In terms of the key target audience, it can be developed gradually from the groups with higher education levels and the middle elderly aged 45–64 years old.