Hospital visits by farmers in an impoverished northwest China county have more than doubled over the last five years, not because of more illness, but because the ill can now afford treatment.

The hospitalization rate of residents in Yuzhong County, of Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, rose to 6.85 percent last year from 2.94 percent in 2006, said Xu Aimin, vice director of Yuzhong health office.

The increase is thanks to the rural cooperative medical care system under which participants can claim back more than 40 percent of the cost of hospital care.

About 833 million rural Chinese, 94 percent of the rural population, had joined the system by the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Health.

Under the Yuzhong system, a cooperative fund of 160 yuan per person is collected each year, with the central government contributing 60 yuan, local governments 70 yuan and individual farmers 30 yuan.

Bai Xiazhi, a farmer in Sanjiaocheng Town, Yuzhong County, spent 700 yuan (US$104) for a week in hospital, but the new rural cooperative medical care system gave her 450 yuan back.

"This system has really lightened our load," Bai's husband, Zhang Lei, said as the couple left the township hospital after Bai's recovery from a throat condition.