Farmers worrying about expensive medical treatment have received
a boost with the news that the Chinese government plans to improve
medical care for 900 million rural residents.
The central government decided to double government allowances
of 20 yuan (US$2.5) this year for each farmer participating in the
rural cooperative medical care system, according to the government
work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao to the fourth session
of the 10th National People's Congress on Sunday.
China launched the rural cooperative medical care system in some
provinces on a trial basis in 2003 and it had covered 671 counties
with a total of 177 million rural residents by 2005, according to
the report.
In addition, China plans to extend the scope of current trials
to 1,145, or 40 percent of its counties this year, said Wen in the
report.
With the new policy, a farmer puts 10 yuan (US$1.25) a year into
his personal medical care account and the government injects
another 40 yuan (US$5) into his account. Then, the government will
pay a maximum of 65 percent of his medical charges a year.
"It's good news for us. To cure a cold would cost us 60 yuan
(US$7.5) and it's too much," said Zhu Youli, a farmer from the
Jiuji Village in north China's Shanxi Province.
High medical expenses and inadequate health care have long
haunted the vast population of Chinese farmers, who were supposed
to share the same fruits of the country's fast economic development
over the past two decades as the urban residents.
"We have a saying that a serious illness eats up ten years of
efforts of a farmer's family to shake off poverty," said Zhu.
Latest statistics from the Health Ministry show one third of
poor rural patients in China choose not to go to hospital and 45
percent of the hospitalized farmers ask to be discharged before
they have recovered.
Hu Zhi, a farmer from the county of Ping Nan in the southern
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, once had a hard experience to
treat his father's heart disease.
Hu's father, 80, needed to go to hospital at least three times a
year, which cost the family 10,000 yuan (US$1,250), imposing a huge
financial burden on the five-strong family.
"Then my father refused to go to hospital. Once we arrived at
the front door of the county's hospital, he turned back home alone
secretly, making me feel so awful," said Hu.
Things changed after Hu's family joined the medical care system
in 2004.
"It's like we have bought medical insurance. Now, we just need
to pay one third of the original money for my father's disease,"
said Hu.
The Chinese government began to increase input in health care in
rural areas when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ran riot
in the country in 2003.
The central and local governments spent 10.5 billion yuan to
establish a disease prevention and control system that has operated
at provincial, city and county levels over the past three years,
said Wen in his report.
In addition, the central government spent 3 billion yuan (US$375
million) to support the establishment of health clinics in towns
and townships in the central and western regions.
For most farmers in China, however, finding a well-equipped and
a low-charged clinic in rural areas is not easy, because the
investment in medical care facilities in rural areas is not
comparable to that of urban cities, said Yi Yanxiang, an official
with the Shanxi Provincial health department.
"You should not expect to finish a month's work in one day,"
said Yin.
Wen promised in his report that "the state will spend more than
20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) over the next five years on
renovating hospital buildings in towns and townships and upgrading
their equipment".
By 2008, the basics of a Rural Health Care Service System and a
rural medical assistance system should be in place in all rural
areas, said the premier.
"I hope the government can keep its word and we don't have to
leave hospitals because we can't afford the medical charges," said
Zhu Youli.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)