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Chinese farmers enjoy cheap neighborhood medical service (5) |
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10:56, October 12, 2008 |
COVER ALL
Despite the progress, there are still 9 percent of farmers who have not been covered and have to "endure the ailment and delay the serious disease," as they say themselves.
The government has planned to expand the scheme to cover all rural residents and double the funding level to 100 yuan per capita by the end of 2008, with a split of 20 yuan from the participant and 80 yuan from the governments, Health Minister Chen said.
"As the financing increases, reimbursement plans should be adjusted to ensure that more medical fees can be refunded for farmers to boost the attractiveness of the program," Chen stressed.
China is determined to improve the grassroots healthcare system with a bigger budget, said vice health minister Gao Qiang.
The government will allocate more than 2.7 billion yuan for the development of rural healthcare infrastructure next year, said Zhao Zilin, the Ministry of Health ''s financial department director.
The special fund will be used mainly for building hospitals for women and children and hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine as well as health centers.
The average cost for health centers will be 80,000 yuan, 380,000 yuan for hospitals for women and children hospitals, and 1million yuan for Chinese medicine hospitals.
The funding will also provide 21 types of medical equipment, such as B-ultrasonic scanners, sterilizers and ECG monitors.
With good medical equipment, quality doctors and reimbursement of some expenses to ease financial burdens, rural patients are naturally willing to go to hospital when falling ill. In farmer Gu Chaoshan''s words, "We have the condition now."
To date, all townships have set up standardized hospitals in Quzhou County, which are equipped with first-aid beds, X-ray facilities. They offer clinic services in traditional Chinese medicine, healthcare, maternity, internal medicine, surgery and paediatric service. Each administrative village has a standardized clinic with college graduate doctors.
Gu was most happy at the new rural cooperative medical care program, as he recently got 1,300 yuan in reimbursement from the local medical insurance authority.
Source: Xinhua
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