More than 10 Chinese provinces and major municipalities have lifted household registration restrictions for medical insurance enrolment, reports Caixin. The move is regarded as a significant step in the government’s push to dismantle barriers impeding labor mobility and social equity.
The move targets the household registration system, known as “hukou,” which has long denied migrant workers and flexible employees equal access to public services outside their hometowns. However, full implementation faces a critical bottleneck: local governments in wealthy population centers are reluctant to shoulder the fiscal burden of subsidizing health coverage for new arrivals, creating a disparity in how the reforms are applied across the country.
According to Caixin, provinces including Guangxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia, as well as capital cities like Zhengzhou, Shijiazhuang, and Hefei, have announced that flexible workers and gig economy laborers can now enroll in either employee or resident medical insurance programs based on their place of residence rather than their hukou.