The Beijing municipal government has vowed to incorporate the
elderly and children into the medical insurance system and to
subsidize their medical bills within five years.
Zhang Xinqing, head of the Beijing Labor and Social Security
Bureau, said beneficiaries of the program would include senior
citizens aged 70 or above with no work unit to cover their medical
costs, primary and middle school and university students, and
infants and pre-school children.
The proportion of the medical cost to be paid was under
discussion.
Beijing has more than 25,000 senior citizens who meet the
requirement and about two million students, infants and
children.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)