By the end of 2000, 320 of China's 349 major cities had worked out medical insurance reform plans and 284 cities had enacted their plans covering 43.32 million people, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

In the same year, the revenue of basic medical insurance fund was 17 billion yuan (US$2 billion), and expenditure, 12.4 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion). By the end of the year, the overall surplus was 8.9 billion yuan (US$1.08 billion).

Beijing is among the leading cities in this regard. In a promotional booklet issued by the Beijing Labor and Social Security Bureau, nine key points of the basic medical insurance system are laid out in detail.

1. All employees of urban and township work units within the administrative region of Beijing are entitled to basic medical insurance, including current and retired employees of enterprises, government units, social organizations and civil units and migrant workers currently employed in Beijing.

2. The personal account of the basic medical insurance is made up of four parts, namely payments by the individual employee, medical insurance fee submitted by the employer, interest gained, and other funds legally channeled into the personal account.

3. In line with the principle of “choosing the nearby hospital and making management convenient,” employees are entitled to the following rights: choosing three to five hospitals near their residence or work unit and reserving the right to change after one year; selecting specialized hospitals and Chinese medicine clinics within the entire municipality; choosing satisfactory doctors and nurses within the designated hospitals; and having the right to either buy medicine at the designated hospitals or at the designated pharmacies with prescriptions.

4. The basic medical insurance is also available to migrant workers currently working in Beijing.

5. Middle and primary school students are not covered, as it is mainly targeted at employees.

6. The medical reform will be carried out step by step, and may take two to three years. Hopefully, however, it will be fully accomplished in two years.

7. Those employed by work units in Beijing, but temporarily working outside the city, should first pay the medical costs themselves, and then seek refund after returning to Beijing.

8. Unlike commercial insurance that is voluntary, social insurance is approved by the national legislature and mandatory.

9. The new regulations also stipulate that self-employed people are entitled to the basic medical insurance.

However, the basic medical insurance cannot cover the full medical cost, such as cost of treatment at non-designated hospitals and hospitals in Taiwan, HK, Macao and outside China, medicines bought at non-designated pharmacies, and the costs of treatment for traffic accidents, drug-taking, fighting and other illegal actions, suicide, self-mutilation and excessive drinking. These expenses should be borne by the individual.

If anyone participating in the scheme later becomes unemployed, the personal account will continue in effect and the money inside it can still be used. A medical subsidy will cover part of the medical costs of the unemployed.

(china.org.cn by Xiao Gao 05/21/2001)