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 [转帖]Medical funds promised to China’s rural poor |
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暗八仙
头衔: 海归上校
声望: 院士
性别: 
加入时间: 2005/08/19
文章: 5359
来自: 北京
海归分: 76190
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作者：暗八仙 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
Medical funds promised to China’s rural poor
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: March 5 2006 13:21 | Last updated: March 6 2006 04:33
Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, on Sunday promised to accelerate the introduction of rural cooperative medical funds around the country, a policy intended to help farmers afford at least basic health care.
Mr Wen’s focus on a “new-type rural cooperative medical care system” reflects the government’s need to improve the lot of the majority of Chinese who live in the countryside, where few people have insurance and where the public health system has all but collapsed.
“By 2008, this new system and a rural medical assistance system should be basically in place in all rural areas,” Mr Wen said in his annual work report to the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament.
China has in recent years been testing the cooperative system, under which the central government, local governments and rural residents each contributed Rmb10 a year to a common fund used to pay for members’ medical expenses.
Nearly four out of five farmers currently must pay all their medical costs themselves, and serious illness and accident often plunge rural families into financial ruin. The need to maintain a high level of savings for use in case of ill-health is also seen as reducing growth in consumption that might otherwise boost rural economies that have fallen far behind China’s cities over the last decade.
China now plans to extend trials of the cooperative system to 40 per cent of the country’s 2,000 counties this year and to double the government’s annual contribution to a total of Rmb40 per member. The central government would budget an additional Rmb4.2bn for the programme in 2006, Mr Wen said.
However, the cooperative system still faces considerable challenges. Even with increased state contributions, it can cover only a small part of soaring total health costs and some trial funds are already reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy.
State media have also said that many farmers are reluctant to pay their Rmb10 contribution. Since the poorest rural residents are often the least willing to pay, the system risks deepening the exclusion of the most deprived parts of the population from essential services.
Many rural areas also have had no decent medical care available since the collapse in the 1980s of the public health system, with residents relying largely on ill-trained private doctors and commercially-run pharmacies and clinics.
In his work report, Mr Wen also highlighted efforts to improve local health facilities, promising to spend Rmb20bn over the next five years on renovating hospital buildings in towns and townships and on upgrading their equipment.
The government would also “regularly” send urban medical personnel to work in rural clinics, the premier said.
Since last June, more than 4,000 urban doctors have spent time in undeveloped areas under a programme intended to offer direct care for rural patients and improve the training of local medical staff.
Beijing is also seeking to improve rural education, with Mr Wen vowing on Sunday to completely eliminate tuition and other fees for all pupils receiving the nine-year compulsory education at schools in the countryside.
作者：暗八仙 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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 [转帖]Medical funds promised to China’s rural poor -- 暗八仙 - (3412 Byte) 2006-3-07 周二, 04:08 (976 reads)
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