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Chinese farmers enjoy cheap neighborhood medical service (3) |
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10:56, October 12, 2008 |
HAND FROM INSURERS
A helping hand may come from Chinese insurers who are seeking more business opportunities in the country''s rural cooperative medical care system as the value of cooperative funds they managedmore than tripled last year.
In 2007, seven insurance companies were entrusted with the management of 3.66 billion yuan of cooperative medical care funds across the country''s rural areas, 233 percent more than in 2006, said the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.
The companies included the country''s top three life insurers -- China Life Insurance, Ping An Life Insurance and China Pacific Life Insurance. They provided fund reimbursement, settlement and auditing for medical care schemes that covered 30.17 million ruralChinese last year, an annual growth of 41 percent, said the commission.
Under the schemes, local governments paid management fees to the insurers without drawing money from the cooperative funds. Deficits in fund operation were undertaken by governments and surpluses went to the next year''s scheme.
Such a mode boosted the rural insurance business while preventing fraudulent operations and saving government costs, saidthe commission.
It cited the example of China Life Insurance, which promoted life, health and accident insurance businesses in rural areas and raked in more than 200 million yuan of revenue last year.
Farmers can get only about 30 percent of their medical expensesreimbursed under the present system, resulting in a huge potentialdemand for medical insurance products, said the commission.
It urged capable insurance companies to seize the opportunity and develop insurance products supplementary to the rural medical care system.
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