Central and local government subsidies for China's rural
cooperative medical insurance system will be increased from 40 yuan
(5.50 U.S. dollars) to 80 yuan per person, Health Minister Chen Zhu said?on Monday.
Rural residents will also be required to raise their
contributions to the scheme, from 10 yuan to possibly 20 yuan a
year.
The increase in funding is expected to ensure the cooperative
healthcare system will cover the entire rural population by the end
of 2008.
"The full coverage means more farmers will be able to reimburse
part of their medical bills," Chen told a national health
conference attended by Vice Premier Wu Yi and other senior
officials.
Chen said 20 out of China's 31 provinces were already entirely
covered by the program.
As of Sept. 30, 2007, about 730 million farmers, or 86 percent,
in 2,448 counties, had joined the scheme, up 10.8 percentage points
from 2004.
"As the financing increases, reimbursement plans should be
adjusted to ensure that more medical fees can be refunded for
farmers to boost the attractiveness of the program," Chen
stressed.
The fund paid out about 22 billion yuan (3 billion U.S. dollars)
in reimbursements, with members of the scheme making 263.3 million
medical visits during the first three quarters of last year,
according to a report issued by the Ministry of Health on
Sunday.
Vice Premier Wu Yi told the conference that the past five years
had been "extraordinary" for the development of the country's
health sector.
"The uncontrolled hikes in medical fees have been initially
curbed, traditional Chinese medicine services have received public
applause, and both the environment and drug and food safety have
continuously improved," Wu said.
Health Minister Chen vowed to "extend universal health coverage
to all Chinese by 2020", which means, "citizens of any age, sex and
profession, or living in any place, are entitled to the same level
of medicare".
He said measures had to be taken to narrow the gap in
development of healthcare in different regions or among different
social groups, and between urban and rural areas.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2008)