China's new rural corporative medical care system (NCMS) pooled on average 113.37 yuan (16.6 U.S. dollars) for each participant last year, an increase of 17.12 yuan from a year earlier, the Ministry of Health announced Tuesday.

About 94.44 billion yuan was collected by the fund in 2009, with the central budget, local governments and its participants chipping in 26.96 billion yuan, 47.2 billion yuan, and 19.42 billion yuan respectively, the ministry said in a report posted on its website.

The fund paid out about 92.29 billion yuan in reimbursements last year, according to the ministry. About 82.6 percent of the money went to in-patient services and about 13.2 percent to out-patient services.

In 2009, 759 million reimbursement packages were handed out, the report said.

The scheme was initiated in 2003 as a pilot program to help Chinese farmers to cover part of their medical costs when seriously ill.

At present, farmers each pay 20 yuan a year to join the NCMS, while government contributes 80 yuan for each farmer who joins. The reimbursement rate is usually around 30 percent of costs.

Preliminary statistics showed the reimbursement rate reached 55 percent for in-patient expenses last year, according to the report.

About 833 million rural residents had joined the NCMS by the end of 2009, 94 percent of the rural population, figures from the Ministry of Health showed.

Expanding the cooperative medical care system is just one step of China's health care strategy which aims to introduce cheaper medical services for all.

China unveiled its three-year plan for health care reform, involving an investment of at least 850 billion yuan, in April 2009. It aims to lay a solid foundation for equitable and universal access to essential health care for everyone in the country by 2020.