Report shows steady improvement of China's medical insurance system

BEIJING -- In 2023, China's medical insurance system saw stable operation, with its service for the people improved and medical insurance funds secure and sustainable, a recent report has shown.

The National Healthcare Security Administration published a statistical report on the development of the country's medical insurance industry in 2023 on Thursday.

Cross-regional medical visits have been more convenient. As of the end of last year, China had over 550,000 medical and medicine institutions in the national medical insurance network designated for trans-provincial settlement of medical bills, including approximately 198,000 medical institutions and 352,400 pharmacies.

Throughout the year, the total number of cross-regional outpatient visits, emergency room visits, and inpatient visits reached 243 million, involving 711.1 billion yuan (about 997.04 million U.S. dollars) of medical expenses.

The figures rose significantly from 110 million visits and 521.7 billion yuan in 2022, respectively, according to the report.

Medical and healthcare services covered by the national healthcare insurance program have been more accessible, with 2.61 billion such beneficial services delivered to Chinese citizens in 2023, up 21.1 percent year on year, according to the report.

China has built the world's largest basic healthcare insurance network, covering over 95 percent of its citizens by the end of 2023.

Centralized bulk drug procurement is another effort by China to reduce medical expenses for the people. In 2023, two batches of purchases were conducted, involving 80 drugs and leading to an average price cut of 57 percent, read the report.

Currently, more than 3,000 Western medicines and traditional Chinese medicines have been included in the national basic healthcare insurance scheme, and an increasing number of drugs for treating cancers and rare diseases have been added to the list.

China has pledged to further reform its medical and healthcare systems. A series of reform measures have been outlined, including improving the public health system, upgrading services of community-level medical and healthcare institutions, and deepening the reform of public hospitals.

A new round of updating the catalog of insurance-covered medicines has kicked off this year, which is expected to bring about more benefits to the people, said Zhu Weiguo, an official in charge of medical insurance at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital.