China reveals details of health care plan

Beijing laid out more details of its universal health care plan at a State Council meeting on Wednesday, the South China Morning Post reported. The government wants to increase the number of urban residents covered by basic medical insurance to 390 million, up from by 318 million. It also wants to include 6.07 million retirees from bankrupt state-owned companies in the program. Beijing’s goal is to have all rural residents and 90% of China’s total population covered by the insurance plan by 2012. The cap on the maximum reimbursement under the program would also be increased but no details were given. A pharmaceutical catalog of what drugs would be covered by the insurance program would also be released and implemented at 30% of community and county-run clinics in the country by the end of this year.