Millions of people in China are dropping out of state health insurance, according to a report by Voice of America (VOA). As per statistics released by China\u2019s National Healthcare Security Administration, in 2022, China had 1.34 billion people enrolled in state-subsidised basic health insurance but that was 17.05 million fewer than in 2021. A resident of China\u2019s eastern city of Nanjing, Shu Min thinks the nation\u2019s public hospitals are running out of money and are doing everything they can to increase the co-pays charged directly to patients.<\/p>\n
Shu Min told VOA Mandarin in an interview: \u201cA doctor told me, the more problems a patient has, the better. So the hospital could benefit more by taking whatever highest insurance amount that the patient can claim. This is so ridiculous!\u201d Shu Min\u2019s father has been diagnosed with mild Alzheimer\u2019s disease and suffered a fracture in a fall a few years ago, requiring long-term hospitalization for rehabilitation. Shu Min said some hospitals recommended that her father be admitted as a patient seeking treatment for Alzheimer\u2019s instead of rehabilitation because the health insurance program pays USD 3,000 (22,000 yuan) for Alzheimer\u2019s patients, compared with USD 1,100 (8,000 yuan) for rehabilitation, as per VOA.<\/p>\n
She said the public hospitals have also raised co-pay amounts in recent years. One of the medications her father uses most is no longer covered by health insurance, and the family had to switch medications, even though a doctor said that the original medication was more effective. There are also fewer items covered by medical insurance. For example, two years ago, rehabilitation exercise was provided twice a day, but now it is provided once a day. Physical therapy has also been cut from twice to once a day.<\/p>\n
Shu Min said: \u201cI became very nervous over the past three years because every January, doctors would tell me there\u2019s a new policy. Since last year, policy changes have become more frequent. This doesn\u2019t give patients or hospitals any time to adapt. I\u2019ve been living in anxiety and serious insecurity.\u201d However, unlike Shu Min, who still has medical insurance, millions of Chinese citizens have dropped out of the state scheme. An associate professor at Central China Normal University in Wuhan Wang Chaoqun argues in a research article on health insurance that several factors have led people to withdraw from the insurance program. These include steadily rising premiums, reduced benefits, improved health among middle-aged residents, and a failure of the insurance plan to address some major illnesses.<\/p>\n
On Weibo, China\u2019s widely used but censored social media platform, a thread titled \u201c20 million people dropping out of health insurance\u201d attracted heated debates and discussions, according to VOA. A user called \u201cJacqekaby\u201d responded, \u201cMore and more people choose not to buy any health insurance.\u201d Director of the International Affairs Department of a policy research organisation known as Taiwan Thinktank Dong Siqi said the cost of health insurance in China today is 38 times higher than it was 20 years ago, while the average income for migrant workers has risen by only 24 per cent. The continued rise in premiums may put pressure on some people, especially those in rural areas that have more family members.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proportion of health insurance paid by the government is still much higher than that by individuals, so the fact that so many people have withdrawn from the scheme reveals a distrust of the social security system,\u201d Dong told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the operations of many businesses, which are no longer able to pay health insurance for their employees, Dong said. \u201cLocal governments have become less capable of providing health care coverage due to financial downturn. So people\u2019s out-of-pocket payments are higher, and they prefer to keep the cash for other expenses,\u201d according to VOA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Millions of people in China are dropping out of state health insurance, according to a report by Voice of America\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":17132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,186],"tags":[158,5141,356,3527,5142,5139,5143,5144,5145,5140],"class_list":["post-17131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-world","tag-china","tag-chinas-national-healthcare-security-administration","tag-covid-19","tag-doctors","tag-economic-downturn","tag-health-insurance","tag-increased-premiums","tag-reduced-benefits","tag-social-security","tag-state-sponsored-insurance-scheme"],"reading_time":"4 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}