China audits rural cooperative medical care system
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China's National Audit Office (NAO) is carrying out a nationwide audit of the new rural cooperative medical care system and its accounts, the NAO said on Sunday.
The three-month audit started in May, with auditors going to township clinics in nine provinces of Anhui, Hubei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Hunan, Sichuan, Fujian, Henan and Heilongjiang, the office told Xinhua.
The audit by mid-May showed that the system had helped improve the quality of medical services in Chinese rural areas and eased financial burdens on rural families, said the office.
About 94.44 billion yuan went into the fund in 2009, with the central government, local governments and affiliate organizations chipping in 26.96 billion yuan, 47.2 billion yuan, and 19.42 billion yuan respectively, according to the Ministry of Health.
Official figures revealed that around 833 million Chinese farmers, 94 percent of the total rural population, had joined the rural cooperative medical care system by the end of last year.
The Chinese government in April 2009 unveiled a three-year plan for the nation's health care reform -- involving an investment of at least 850 billion yuan (124.5 billion U.S. dollars).
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