China plans to double the annual medical insurance premium for rural residents in the coming five years, giving rural residents a bigger reimbursement on their medical bills.

The annual premium per person will be raised from the current 155 yuan (23.4 U.S. dollars) to 300 yuan, said Minister of Health Chen Zhu Thursday in Beijing.

Chen said that more than 90 percent of the rural population had joined the New Rural Cooperative Medical Care System (NCMS) in 2010, a medical insurance scheme for villagers. The government currently pays 126 yuan out of the 155-yuan premium, but it did not say whether it intends to pay more in the future.

Last year, China increased compensation for rural children suffering from critical illnesses -- with the insurance scheme now covering more than 70 percent of the costs in treating rural children with leukemia and congenital heart disease.

The rural cooperative medical care system was initiated in 2003 as a pilot program to help farmers recover some of their medical costs when ill.

Expanding the cooperative medical care system is one step in China's health care reform strategy to introduce cheaper medical services for all.