Full Text: Progress in China's Human Rights in 2013

Right to Social Security

China's social security has been continuously improving in recent years, as we speed up the process of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. China's social security developed rapidly in 2013, as it expanded constantly both in coverage and scope. Although not very developed, China has put in place a rudimentary social security system, which is the world's largest and suitable to China' s current social conditions.

In 2012 full coverage was achieved by the new social endowment insurance system for rural residents and social endowment insurance for non-working urban residents. By the end of 2013 a total of 497.5 million rural and non-working urban residents had participated in social endowment insurance, an increase of 13.81 million compared with 2012. A total of 322.18 million people had participated in the basic endowment insurance for urban workers by the end of 2013, an increase of 17.91 million compared with 2012. In 2013 the monthly per capita basic pension for enterprise retirees, which had been continuously raised for years, reached almost 1,900 yuan, 10 percent of the average monthly pension of 2012. The new adjustment also provided preferential treatment for retired senior enterprise technicians, and retirees whose pensions were relatively low. In February 2014 the State Council issued Opinions on Establishing a Unified Basic Pension Insurance System for Rural and Non-working Urban Residents, which integrates the new social endowment insurance system for rural residents with the social endowment insurance system for non-working urban residents, and build a unified basic pension insurance system for both rural and non-working urban residents nationwide.

China has established and improved its medical insurance system to protect both rural and urban residents' right to medical treatment. So far, China has established a basic national medical insurance system, and kept raising its standard. More than 1.3 billion people, or over 90 percent of the total population have participated in medical insurance for non-working urban workers, basic medical insurance for urban residents or the new rural cooperative medical care system. By the end of 2013 some 299.06 million people had participated in the basic medical insurance for non-working urban residents. Government subsidies for basic medical insurance for non-working urban residents have been rising year by year-from 40 yuan per person in 2007 to 280 yuan in 2013. The reimbursement rate for hospitalization expenses covered by relevant policies has been raised to around 70 percent, and the maximum payment has been raised to six times local residents' per capita disposable income. The new rural cooperative medical care system has expanded rapidly to cover the entire rural population. By the end of 2013 a total of 802 million people had participated in the new rural cooperative medical care system, compared with 730 million in 2007, with its coverage rate rising from 85.7 percent to 99 percent. Government subsidies for the new rural cooperative medical care system and per capita funding have grown year by year. In 2013 per capita financing for the new rural cooperative medical care increased to about 340 yuan, of which 280 yuan was subsidies from government at various levels; the reimbursement rate for hospitalization expenses covered by relevant policies has stayed at 75 percent, and the maximum payment and the reimbursement rate for outpatient expenses have been further increased. In the same year the new rural cooperative medical care system benefited a total of 1.32 billion people, up 14.9 percent year on year, and 1.37 million patients benefited from serious illness insurance under the new rural cooperative medical care system, with a reimbursement rate of 70 percent.