Background The peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy for end stage renal disease (ESRD) is expensive. The main reason for non-acceptance onto dialysis programs is the great cost. In the present study, we design an auxiliary business insurance program to provide the potential ESRD patients who have no access to governmental medical insurance or can not afford the remaining part besides the limited reimbursement for peritoneal dialysis therapy.Methods The information applied in this study was extracted from the medical records of 641 PD patients, who were treated in two dialysis centers of the first and the third teaching hospitals of the Peking University respectively. A collective risk model was employed to estimate the expenses on PD therapy. Survival analyses were performed to obtain the average survival time of PD patients and the average length of time from the onset of the primary disease to the beginning of PD. An annuity method was used to determine the pure premium.Results For chronic nephritis, diabetes mellitus and hyperpietic as primary diseases, the mean survival time ± standard errors were (55.1±3.7) months, (38.9±3.2) months and (61.4±4.6) months respectively, and they were significantly different from each other (all P=0.000). The expenses of whole PD therapy were 242 159.05 Yuan, 182 525.02 Yuan and 284 579.24 Yuan respectively.Conclusions An auxiliary business insurance for PD patients was designed with the pure premium for any individual who had chronic nephritis, diabetes mellitus or hyperpietic as primary disease was RMB 35.94 Yuan/year, 87.73Yuan/year or 7.71 Yuan/year respectively without considering the additional premium for coping with the business expenditures and accidental risks.