Based on the cross-sectional data of the China household finance survey (CHFS) in 2017, this paper aims to empirically examine the effects of the family life cycle, financial status, and asset portfolio on commercial health insurance demand (breadth and depth) by constructing Probit and Tobit models, respectively. Based on all of the samples, it has been found that family life cycle, family financial status, and family asset portfolio have different influences on the breadth and the depth of health insurance. In terms of the family life cycle, there is an “inverted U-shaped” relationship with the breadth and the depth of health insurance, and the effect is obvious. In terms of family financial status, total household consumption has positive and significant effects on the breadth and depth of health insurance. Total household income and total household debt only have a significant positive impact on health insurance breadth. The total household asset portfolio is only positively correlated with health insurance depth. In terms of the family asset portfolio, the share of real estate assets has a crowding out effect on the breadth and the depth of health insurance. The share of savings assets has no significant effect on the breadth and the depth of health insurance but is positively correlated with the former and negatively correlated with the latter. Both the share of vehicle assets and the share of investment assets only have a significant impact on the breadth of health insurance; however, the positive and negative correlation is different. Based on the sub-samples, it has been found that the breadth and the depth of health insurance vary greatly in the regions and household registration characteristics.

Based on the time series data of age characteristics, household registration characteristics, gender characteristics, education characteristics, marriage characteristics and commercial health insurance density of Chinese residents from 1997 to 2020, this paper aims to explore the dynamic relationship between the individual characteristics of Chinese residents and the demand for commercial health insurance by means of impulse response and variance decomposition analysis using an SVAR model. The results show that the age characteristics, household registration characteristics, gender characteristics, education characteristics and marriage characteristics of Chinese residents have a significant impact on the demand for commercial health insurance, but there is a time lag. There is a long-term equilibrium relationship between them: In terms of age characteristics and gender characteristics, the former has a positive effect in the short term and a significant inhibition on commercial health insurance demand in the long term, while the latter has the opposite. In terms of household registration characteristics, education characteristics and marriage characteristics, there are positive effects on the whole and negative effects in a particular period.