Some 300,000 teachers from Shanghai's educational institutions Wednesday received medicare insurance worth of 600 million yuan (US$72 million), offered by the Ping'an Insurance Company.
The service will give an annual cover of 1,000 yuan (US$120) for each teacher.
Meanwhile, the company's life insurance branch in Shanghai has issued intelligent cards for this service. Teachers will be able to pay their medicare bills with these cards.
Sources with the city's educational workers' trade union said that the current medicare system requires teachers to pay a fee equivalent to ten percent of the average salary in Shanghai before the social medicare system shares the burden with individuals.
In the past, all medical fees were covered by the government.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2002)
