He Zhonghua, a farmer in central China's Henan Province, was
overjoyed to receive 5,000 yuan ( approximately 602.4 US dollars)
of medical subsidies when he left hospital. It meant the financial
burden on the family would be much alleviated.
The benefit comes from a rural medical cooperative system under
construction across the country. Under the system, each farmer pays
10 yuan to a medical fund. Correspondingly, the state and local
governments each pay 10 yuan to the fund. When a farmer receives
medical treatment, he could have a certain proportion of the
medical expenses refunded.
"This is a significant project," said Jiang Zhongpu, a member of
the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at a meeting during of the
committee's annual session being held in Beijing.
He said in the past, rural residents will be dragged into abyss
once they get ill. "Illness causes poverty and poverty in turn
deprives them of medical service. That land them forever in a
vicious circle."
Jiang said the average annual income of a farmer in Henan (a
little more than 1,000 yuan) is less than the total medical
coverage for an appendectomy, a very ordinary medical
operation.
The current medical insurance system in China mainly targets the
urban population. Statistics from the Ministry of Health show half
of the 900 million rural residents cannot afford medical treatment
for various financial reasons.
In 2003, the Chinese government initiated the program to build a
rural medical cooperative system in eight years.
A medical assistance system for rural residents is being built
across the country. At the end of 2004, 1,003 counties have started
to provide medical aid to rural residents out of a pool of fund
already amounting to 1.18 billion yuan. The system has benefited
5.49 million rural needy residents.
In north China's port city of Tianjin, the municipal health
bureau started to offer farmers free medical checkups from March
2004.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2005)