The 2023 New Agricultural Cooperation Payment Deadline, which is about to expire at the end of 2022, has been postponed many times around this Spring Festival. The reason is that under the influence of epidemic control, some rural people who are working in other places cannot return to their hometowns and cannot pay their fees on time. Although mobile payment is now convenient, many elderly migrant workers are not familiar with smartphone operation and have to pay their bills in person. In order to ensure that farmers from other areas can also participate in the payment, the deadline for payment of new agricultural cooperative fees has been extended to the end of January and even the end of February in some places.
However, despite the passage of time, when the end of February arrived, some places found that although some people had returned to their hometowns and paid the new agricultural cooperative fees during the Spring Festival, many people still failed to pay the fees on time. Although the contribution of the new agricultural cooperative is voluntary, if it cannot attract enough people to participate, it may lead to the loss of basic medical security for most people, which may lead to the situation of returning to poverty due to illness and becoming poor due to illness, thereby hindering the overall situation of poverty alleviation work, and at the same time weakening the health of farmers.
In order to encourage as many people as possible to participate in the new agricultural cooperative payment, many places have again extended the payment deadline by one month until the end of March. It is now the end of March, the deadline for payment of the new agricultural cooperative has not been postponed, and April will be the final node of centralized payment.
However, after April, it is not that farmers can no longer participate in the payment, but if they want to continue to pay, the current standard will no longer apply. In the centralized payment, individual farmers only need to bear 350 yuan of contributions, while the state subsidizes 610 yuan, and the actual payment amount is 960 yuan. Once the centralized payment is over, that is, from April, if the individual wants to continue to pay, he will need to bear the full fee, that is, 960 yuan.
However, why did the new agricultural cooperative policy, which should have been welcomed, be met with a cold reception in the countryside and frequently postponed for three months, and many rural people are still unwilling to pay?
The author believes that there are two main reasons. First of all, rural residents generally believe that the reimbursement of the new agricultural cooperative is now much worse than in previous years, so they feel that it is no longer cost-effective. In the past, rural residents who sought medical treatment through the new rural cooperative clearly felt the reimbursement advantages, and there was a significant gap in medical expenditure compared with not using the new agricultural cooperative cooperation. Today, however, things are different. Although some medical expenses are still reimbursed, some people have found that the cost after reimbursement is similar to that of non-reimbursement. This is not alarmism, but a real phenomenon.
Second, the payment standards of the new agricultural cooperative have been rising and have become too expensive. When it was first launched, the annual payment of the new agricultural cooperative was only 10 yuan and 20 yuan, and even the head of the family was only tens of yuan or 100 yuan. Today, however, the situation is very different, with individual contributions rising to $350 and families paying thousands of dollars. This is a considerable expense for farmers who make a living, so farmers generally consider it not cost-effective.
At the same time, some rural residents who have not been ill for years, are in good health, have never been hospitalized, paid large sums of money but never used it, making them feel that the money has been wasted. As a result, many people have chosen not to pay the new agricultural cooperative fee this year.
The author believes that the value of the new agricultural cooperative is the only medical guarantee for most farmers, and its value may not be easy to reflect in ordinary times, but once they suffer from serious diseases, their importance is obvious. Rural residents should therefore decide carefully whether to stop contributing, preferably continuing to participate.
Of course, in view of the current problems existing in the new agricultural cooperation, the author suggests that improvements should be made as soon as possible. For example, in terms of payment standards, consideration could be given to implementing "differential pricing", whereby the amount of contributions can be flexibly adjusted according to the reimbursement situation of individuals in recent years, and the fees should be appropriately increased for those who are reimbursed frequently, while those who have not been reimbursed for many years should be reduced. This may be able to balance the needs of different groups and make the new agricultural cooperative better serve rural residents.