Eight million more Chinese to get health cover

March 10th, 2011 - 3:44 pm ICT by IANS  

Beijing, March 10 (IANS) Eight million more Chinese will be covered by health insurance in 2011, the human resources and social security ministry has announced.

The latest move will bring the number of urban residents covered by health insurance to 440 million, Xinhua reported.

China’s health insurance scheme includes urban basic health insurance for urban dwellers and rural cooperative health insurance for rural residents.

Health Minister Chen Zhu said Wednesday that this year the reimbursement cap for farmers would be raised from 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan ($7,600), almost 10 times that of farmers’ average per capita net annual income.

That means 70 percent of farmers’ inpatient expenditure can be reimbursed, 10 percentage points higher than that in 2010.

Further, Chen said China will expand the pilot project providing extra financial help to people suffering from serious diseases. The current project covers children with congenital heart disease and leukemia.

The ministry was considering expanding the package to cover other diseases such as breast cancer, cervical cancer and uremia, Chen said at a press conference.

In 2003, China launched the new rural cooperative medical care programme, in which a member pays 10 yuan a year and gets partial reimbursement at varied rates for hospital expenses.

This year, government subsidies for the new rural cooperative medical care system and medical insurance for non-working urban residents will be increased to 200 yuan per person, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in a report.

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