Chongqing’s Efforts on Poverty Alleviation in Medical Care

Chongqing - 'Two no worries and three guarantees' serves as the crucial policy as China takes great endeavors to alleviate poverty. The "two no worries" refer to achieving the goal of poverty alleviation so that those who have been living in poverty no longer have to worry about food and clothing. And the "three guarantees" refer to achieving the goal of guaranteeing compulsory education, basic medical treatment, and housing security. To reach the goal, Chongqing has carried out a series of policies and practices to ensure rural poor people have no worry about basic medical services.

Chongqing Implements the policy to ensure that the patients can be cured, can afford the medical bill, and can take medical care with convenience as well as strengthen basic guarantee for medical care. Funds have been invested in the reconstruction and expansion of county-level hospitals, township hospitals, village clinics in poverty-stricken areas and counties, and 14 people's hospitals and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in poverty-stricken areas and counties at the national level have met the standards of second-class hospitals. Chongqing pushes forward the mode of "Internet + Better Healthcare", and relies on medical treatment combination and medical community to develop the telemedicine services to support the counterparts. Multiple medical security systems with Three Insurances, Two Aids, and Two Funds are established. The system is based on basic medical insurance, critical illness insurance, and medical assistance and supplemented by commercial supplementary insurance, illness emergency assistance, poverty alleviation medical fund, and poverty alleviation healthcare fund.

medical care card

In the area of basic medical insurance, following poverty alleviation efforts have been made.

(1)Key Medical Relief Objects: Family members living on the minimum living allowance, people living in dire poverty, are eligible for the first standard of residential medical insurance. The government can fully cover the individual payment.

(2)Low income Relief Objects:  people eligible to rural preferential treatment / Severely disabled persons in urban and rural areas/ people with special difficulties registered in civil administration departments, college students with family financial difficulties, etc. are eligible to the first standard of the residential medical insurance, The government can subsidize 70% according to the first standard.

(3)Severely ill patients who suffer from family poverty reinstatement due to illness: Severely ill patients who get high medical expenses beyond family affordability and causing serious difficulties to the family are eligible to the first standard of the residential medical insurance. The government can subsidize 70% according to the first standard.

(4)For the poverty-stricken population other than the objects mentioned above, the individual contribution shall be subsidized by districts and counties (autonomous counties) according to the poverty level.

For the medical insurance poverty alleviation objects, the proportion of basic medical insurance reimbursement for hospitalization expenses is increased by ten percentage points, and the starting line for hospitalization reimbursement is reduced by 50%. Based on 50% and 60% reimbursement for serious illness insurance for urban and rural residents,  the reimbursement portion increases by five percentage points, respectively, and the starting line for serious illness insurance for residents is reduced by 50%.