In fact, the principle of utmost good faith in insurance means that both parties to an insurance contract must fully and completely perform their obligations with utmost good faith in the process of concluding and performing the insurance contract, and must not deceive or conceal the other party's important information about the subject matter of insurance, and strictly abide by the stipulations and commitments of the insurance contract. Article 5 of the Insurance Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "The parties to insurance activities shall follow the principle of good faith when exercising their rights and performing their obligations. The principle of good faith is emphasized because the insurance contract has strong particularity. First, the insurance contract is a lucky contract with uncertainty. Second, compared with general contracts, insurance contracts have obvious information asymmetry. Third, the insurance industry is characterized by strong liquidity.
Insurance contract is the most honest contract, and the parties to the insurance contract have the obligation to explain and inform. For example, in April 2000, 40-year-old Wang of a company was hospitalized for stomach cancer (relatives were afraid of his mood swings and didn't tell him the real condition), and he was discharged from hospital after the operation and went to work normally. On August 24th, recommended by colleagues, Wang went to the insurance company to insure his life insurance. When filling out the insurance policy, Wang did not declare the fact that he had cancer, nor did he truthfully state whether he had been hospitalized or had surgery recently. In July of 200 1 year, Wang was seriously ill and died after being rescued. Wang's wife, as the designated beneficiary, went to the insurance company to ask for insurance money. When the insurance company checked and submitted relevant certificates, it was found that Wang's death history stated that he had cancer and had surgery, so he refused to pay the insurance money. Wang's wife argued that her husband didn't know what disease he was suffering from and didn't violate the obligation to inform, so there was a dispute between the two sides.
The insured suffered from a serious illness and received hospitalization and surgical treatment before insurance. However, due to the kindness of family members and doctors, the insured did not know what disease he had, which led to the failure to inform him when insurance was applied. Careful scrutiny of this special situation, the insurer has legitimate reasons to refuse compensation. Because according to the general theory of insurance, the content of disclosure obligation is a statement of facts, not an accurate statement of opinions. It does not require the applicant's information to be completely accurate, as long as he fulfills this obligation as far as possible within the applicant's cognitive range.
The insured did not know what disease he was suffering from when he insured. That is to say, under the condition that the insured really doesn't know what disease he is suffering from, if he makes an emotional statement about his illness, although this statement may be inconsistent with the facts (for example, he has stomach cancer, and his family kindly told him that he has stomach trouble, and he applied for stomach trouble), but he is absolutely impeccable in fulfilling his obligations, but he conceals or lies about the facts about medical treatment or treatment, and he commits the crime of not properly informing important facts and should bear the adverse consequences of violating the obligation of informing.
Insurance integrity is an important factor that threatens the survival of the insurance industry and even the integrity of the government and society. The principle of good faith is an important principle of insurance management. Insurance integrity first requires the insurer to achieve the greatest integrity, and the greatest integrity is the insurer's moral code. Similarly, honesty is the basic legal norm and code of conduct for the insured and the insured. It is necessary to establish a mutual trust mechanism between the insurance parties and promote benign interaction. Judging from the current situation of China's insurance industry, many realities make people feel that the insurance integrity is not optimistic, such as the applicant's false information or fraudulent insurance, and the insurer's dishonesty in business and claims settlement, which has affected the healthy development of China's insurance industry to some extent. In China, the insurance integrity of some insurance companies and employees has seriously affected the image and healthy development of the insurance industry. It can be said that it is not the innovation of insurance products that affects the development of insurance industry, but the dishonesty of insurance. In the eyes of ordinary people, the credibility of the insurance industry is very poor now, and some people even equate insurance marketing with pyramid schemes. If the integrity of the insurance industry is not improved, the survival foundation of the whole industry will be destroyed and insurance itself will cease to exist.
Honesty is not absolute, as long as both sides try their best to treat themselves and others, and for the sake of society, it is actually very simple. Therefore, it is particularly important to establish a mutual trust mechanism between insurance parties and promote the benign interaction between them. Intensify the information disclosure of insurance companies, eliminate the information asymmetry between the supply and demand sides of insurance as soon as possible, let insurance-related information spread symmetrically among all parties involved in insurance, uncover the mystery of insurance, and let him really enter the homes of ordinary people.