To measure whether a certain risk is insurable, it mainly depends on whether it meets the following four criteria:
(1) Risk is pure risk, that is, there are only lost opportunities, but there is no possibility of profit. It goes without saying that no one can benefit from mental damage.
(2) There are a lot of similar or similar risks. It is an indisputable fact that mental damage cases are increasing day by day in today's society. Take traffic accidents as an example. According to statistics, from June 5438+0 to June 5438+00 this year, there were more than 330,000 traffic accidents in China, with 67,000 deaths and 230,000 injuries. On average, 40 people are injured and disabled every hour, causing different degrees of physical pain and mental injury. So many mental damages are enough to meet the requirements of the law of large numbers and provide sufficient and accurate loss information for insurers.
(3) The occurrence of risks is measurable. Although whether, when, where and the degree of loss caused by each specific mental injury are accidental and uncertain, we can measure its overall loss probability through scientific means such as probability theory and mathematical statistics. In fact, in foreign countries, citizens' rights of reputation, portrait and privacy have already become insurable objects. People can take out insurance freely according to their needs and protect their legitimate rights and interests through economic means rather than legal means. It is precisely because of such a powerful compensation function that insurance is known as "social stabilizer" and "family umbrella". Therefore, the probability of mental damage can be determined by actuarial science to make it insurable.
(4) The losses caused by risks can be estimated by money. Because mental damage is intangible, its consequences are difficult to quantify and concretize with money, and the laws and regulations on mental damage compensation in China are still blank, and it is difficult to verify the amount of mental damage compensation, which has become a major problem in the insurability of mental damage and a realistic reason why it is difficult to market as a kind of insurance. In actual business, we can refer to the standard of substantial damages, that is, we can determine the amount of compensation for mental damage according to a certain proportion of the sum of medical expenses, nutrition expenses, pensions, funeral expenses, lost time and compensation for income reduction, and the specific amount is approved between 10%-200% according to the severity of mental damage, the time and difficulty of restoring to the original state.
In a word, it is feasible to carry out mental damage compensation insurance both in theory and practice, and it will bring good social benefits. With sufficient actuarial conditions, if the insurance company can launch this insurance in time, I believe there should be broad market prospects.