Beijing
is to kick start a government-funded supplementary medical care
program aiming to halve the financial burden facing retired workers
who become ill, sources at a news briefing said in Beijing on
Monday.
The scheme, expected to be launched April 1, specifies the
municipal government's responsibility of shouldering half of the
expenses retired workers have to pay themselves.
Wang Dexiu, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Labor and
Social Security Bureau, further explained that under the current
medicare system, retirees over 70 have to pay 30 percent of their
medical costs. Under the new supplementary health care program they
will only have to pay 15 percent.
The new program will cover retirees who are not former
government workers who are already receiving medical subsidies from
the government.
Previously, better-off enterprises and institutions set up their
own supplementary medicare scheme. The new plan will reach
city-wide coverage for the first time.
Wang said the new plan is designed to replace existing
supplementary medicare policies in some enterprises and
institutions but they will still be allowed to contribute to their
retired employees’ health care costs.
Wang also noted that the supplementary scheme will be paid by
the municipal government's medical care fund. Enterprises,
institutions or individuals will not have to pay for the new
scheme.
The Beijing municipal government has targeted 59 specific
projects for the welfare of the public in 2006, including improving
the medical care of the retirees, which Wang said will be the first
one to be fulfilled.
(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2006)