She also recognized a major problem concerning the project.

Currently, the allocated money will not follow the individual but their hukou, or the place where their residency is registered. That might leave China's more than 100 million migrant workers who seek employment in cities out of the services, she said.

It also affects the fund's efficiency as places exporting large numbers of migrant workers might get the money while not delivering the service, experts said.

Wu, however, said it was more feasible at present to give out the money based on hukou.

Also, for the places where the majority of migrant workers come from, "they are generally poor, backward areas and therefore need more money to enhance local health services," she said.

Ma Xiaohong, 36, said she and her family benefited greatly from the project.

The resident of Xigao village, Yiyang county of central Henan Province, delivered her first baby at home in 1998 without any medical checkups during pregnancy.

"Most of my fellow villagers delivered a baby at home in those days, and we didn't know that routine examinations make for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby," she told China Daily on Tuesday.

Last year, when she conceived again, the doctor at the village clinic reached her with free maternity health education and checkups.

"That also helped to lower the local birth defect rate from 69 out of 100,000 to 28 out of 100,000," said Liu Gendang, who heads the local health bureau.

Vice-Minister Chen encouraged creativity by health authorities while searching for the right model based on local situations.

"The test to come now is how to further adjust the models for service delivery and increase coverage," Barber said.

She expected to see other challenges, including human resources, staff training, and proper deployment and distribution of quality medical workers, particularly at the grassroots level.

(China Daily December 9, 2010)