About 109 million people in China had medical insurance by the
end of 2003, and the figure is expected to exceed 115 million this
year.
According to a national medical insurance workshop, more than
81.3 percent of the country's major cities have issued regulations
guaranteeing medical coverage to the unemployed.
Wang Dongjin, vice minister of Labor and Social Security, said
China would expand coverage this year to workers in the private
sector as well as to employees at state-owned enterprises and
retirees.
"We will also explore the medical insurance options for over 100
million migrant rural workers," Wang said. About 49 percent of
workers at state-owned factories took out medical insurance as of
last November.
China's medical care system was established when the country was
founded in 1949. Medical expenses were generally covered by the
enterprises or institutes for which people worked.
However, with the country's economic reform, medical fees have
become an increasingly heavy burden on the government.
In 1998, China started a nationwide reform of medical coverage
in an attempt to lessen the government's burden.
That led to a system requiring individual contributions from
citizens and less from the government.
Workers at state-owned enterprises are the first group of
beneficiaries of the medical insurance system.
The government also is promoting a cooperative medical care
system in rural areas on a trial basis.
In the countryside of Jiangyin City, east China's Jiangsu
Province, each farmer contributing 10 yuan a year to a local
cooperative is entitled to 20,000 yuan (US$2,500) of coverage.
Anhui
Province, neighboring Jiangsu, began using the cooperative
system in 1999, for which participants pay an annual fee of 10
yuan, which goes into a fund to which the government contributes
twice as much.
Qin Chaowang, a 57-year-old farmer from Gangkou Village of
Ningguo City in Anhui, recently received 9,887 yuan as
reimbursement for his heart operation.
"It's such a good thing I never dreamed of," said the farmer,
who had delayed the heart operation for three years due to
financial difficulties.
With an average income one-third that of urban dwellers, farmers
are likely to suffer financial crises during times of illness as
medical bills can be very costly, said Chen Xiwen, deputy director
of the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's
Cabinet.
(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2004)