The coming years will see China's medical insurance system further expanding, covering both urban and rural residents. That is the main message from a press conference held in Beijing earlier.

At the conference, vice Finance Minister Wang Jun talked about the government allocation of over one trillion yuan to medical reform in the three year period ending 2011, 280 billion yuan more than planned.

And the financial input has paid off.

According to the Ministry of Human Resources, eight million more Chinese will be covered by urban basic health insurance in 2011. That, together with rural residents covered by medical insurance, takes the percentage of China's population covered by medical care to over 90 percent.

Hu Xiaoyi, Vice Human Resources Minister said "The combined number of people covered by our medical insurance system had exceeded 1.26 billion by the end of last year. We are well on the way to moving towards universal medical insurance."

Wider coverage is one achievement for the country's changing medical service.

Another attraction lies in the cheap medical service the government is resolved to providing its citizens, especially those living in rural areas.

According to Health Minister Chen Zhu, starting this year, farmers who participate in the rural cooperative health insurance system, can get up to 70 percent of their expenditure refunded.

Chen Zhu, Health Minister said "This year the reimbursement cap for farmers will be raised from 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan, almost ten times that of farmers' average per capita net annual income. That means 70 percent of farmers' inpatient expenditure can be reimbursed."

Further, Chen said China would expand nationwide the pilot project providing extra financial assistance to people suffering severe diseases.

For the new rural cooperative medical care program, to which both government and citizens contribute, the government's supportive fund is to be increased to 200 yuan per person this year, 80 more than the current level. That is another major step the government has made in improving medical services for its citizens.

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