4 Government subsidies for basic health insurance for rural and nonworking urban residents increased from 420 to 450 yuan per person per annum

The government will increase both government subsidies for basic health insurance for rural and nonworking urban residents from 420 to 450 yuan per person per annum and personal contributions, and will expand the scope of this insurance to cover more medicines. It will accelerate the building of a nationwide information network for basic health insurance so that healthcare costs can be settled directly where incurred. It will extend trials to use a tiered diagnosis and treatment model and a contracted family doctor service system to cover over 85 percent of prefectural-level cities in China.

A patient undergoes treatment in the emergency room of the Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing in May, 2012. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]