China's National Healthcare Security Administration's (NHSA) total expenditure of medical insurance fund has surpassed CNY16.5tn ($2.28tn) with an average annual growth rate of 11% during the last seven years since its inception.
According to latest data released by the NHSA the benefits of basic medical insurance have been enhanced steadily. A total of 6.7bn outpatient settlements were covered by basic medical insurance in 2024, representing a year-on-year increase of 19%.
An additional 91 drugs have been added to the catalogue of the medicines covered by medical insurance, taking the total number of medicines covered to 3,159.
Meanwhile, the direct settlements for cross-provincial inpatient and outpatient medical bills rose by 27.37% and 90.18% respectively.
The 25 provinces that originally undertook the task of poverty alleviation through medical insurance are now having access to three institutional guarantees of basic medical insurance, critical illness insurance and medical assistance, which have benefited 218m people and lowered their medical costs by CNY196.16bn. The expenditure on maternity insurance came in at CNY143.2bn up 33.92%.
NHSA deputy director financial regulation Zhang Chenguang said, "We have also focused on liquidising the existing funds, deepening the reform on outpatient supply of employee medical insurance, and expanding the group coverage and usable range of mutual-aid personal accounts.
“In 2024, a total of CNY51.2bn was used by mutual-aid personal accounts across China, which effectively reduced the burden of premiums and medical treatment for insured people."
The NHSA in 2024 recovered CNY27.5bn yuan in funds, identified 2,008 fraudulent insurance institutions, and worked with public security authorities to investigate 3,018 medical insurance fraud cases, leading to the arrest of 10,741 suspects.