Under the newly-drafted regulation, which will be implemented on March 1, all self-employed individuals registered in an urban household in the capital will be provided with medical insurance on the condition that they have paid a basic insurance premium monthly, said Wang Dexiu, deputy director of the Beijing Labor and Social Security Bureau.

Different from previous regulations, the new policy mainly covers self-employed laborers as well as freelance workers who have placed their personal files in talent or job-hunting centers, Wang added.

The self-employed participants will pay 7 percent of their previous year's income as the basic insurance premium, and their clinic expenses will be reimbursed in the same proportion as ordinary Beijing workers, according to the regulation.

After paying the basic premium for 25 and 20 years respectively for men and women, similar to common workers, they will receive medical services and be reimbursed for clinic expenses without having to pay a premium, it said.

"The regulation will move away the obstacle that annoyed me the most," said Cheng Feng, who became a freelance writer last year. "I think it will speed up the free flotation of talent."

Medical insurance reform is a hot topic in China.

According to a recent survey conducted by Beijing's insurance watchdog, health and medical insurance topped the list of most serious matters for 64.5 percent] of 5,000 surveyed residents, said a Beijing Evening News report.

Medical insurance reform for self-employed laborers and freelancers is only part of the capital city's ambitious scheme which aims to cover 5.96 million urban residents after it is completed by the end of 2002, according to the official.

By the middle of November, 2.09 million enterprise employees in Beijing will have received basic medical insurance, Wang said.

The bureau will give each insurer a medical insurance manual, and commercial banks will open personal accounts for the participants, from which clinic expenses will be paid. It is expected that the personal accounts will cover the medical expenses of most participants.

Established in the 1950s, China's decades-old medical insurance system for urban workers had many limitations due in part to the planned economy and was extremely wasteful. The State and enterprises bore almost all of the medical expenses of workers.

In a bid to solve the problems, the country began to explore the establishment of a new and more efficient medical insurance system in the mid-1980s.

(China Daily November 20, 2001)