China will further expand its health insurance program this year to
ensure that 85 million people are covered by the system, "Health
News" reported Thursday.
Information from a news briefing held by the Chinese Ministry of
Labor and Social Security on Wednesday said that by the end of this
year, a health insurance program for workers will be fully in place
in all Chinese cities.
By
2001, health insurance for urban workers had been launched in 97
percent of the country's prefectural-level regions, with 76.3
million people being covered by the system.
In
a related development, expenditure on personal hygiene by rural and
urban residents has been rising. In the year 2000 alone, per capita
expenditure on personal hygiene by city dwellers was 376 yuan
(about US$45), 72.5 yuan (about US$8.7) more than in 1999, while
rural residents spent 17.6 yuan (about US$2.1) more in the year
2000 than they did in 1999.
Free medical care and housing were among the major privileges for
public servants in China, who were known as having "iron rice
bowls". The Chinese government started phasing out welfare housing
allocation in 1998, and called for more efforts on medical reform
during the same year.
(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2002)
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