Medical insurance covers over 42 million people in Guizhou

Last year about 42.14 million people from Guizhou were involved in the medical insurance, including 4.79 million employees and 37.35 million residents, according to the Guizhou medical security work conference, which was held on Feb 25.

The Guizhou medical security work conference is held on Feb 25. [Photo/ddcpc website]

The province's medical security department issued more than 50 policy rules and regulations and formulated the first medical security plan during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

In the past year, the province established a long-term mechanism designed to prevent vulnerable people from returning to poverty due to illness, subsidized 1.15 billion yuan ($182.2 million) in insurance coverage and reduced the burden on 7.5 billion yuan of medical expenses for the poor.

The province also unified the treatment policies for 32 outpatient chronic and special conditions, reducing the economic burden of more than 500 million yuan for 480,000 chronic and special disease patients.

The average reimbursement ratios for employees and residents within the scope of hospitalization costs were about 84 percent and 75 percent, respectively, up to a maximum of about 500,000 yuan.

Moreover, centralized procurements for eight high-value medical consumables of 256 kinds of medicines reduced the burden on the public by an estimated 2.35 billion yuan in 2021.

In addition, Guizhou became one of the first three provinces in the country to launch the national medical security information platform – and 27.37 million people were reimbursed for medical treatments and medicine purchases with electronic medical insurance certificates.