Medical insurance expansion planned before year's end

China’s State Council announced the country’s medical insurance would be expanded to cover half of the medical costs from critical illnesses by the end of 2015, Reuters reported. The aim of expanding the country’s health insurance was to “effectively alleviate poverty caused by illness” and to build a stronger universal health care system, the council said. Since 2009, China has spent RMB3 trillion (US$482.8 billion) on health care reform. But even with that investment, its health care system still struggles with a scarcity of doctors, widespread corruption among them and a fragmented social benefits system that ties medical insurance provision to one’s registered hometown.