In recent years, with the accelerated development of the aging population in the mainland, the problems of the elderly in health care have become more and more prominent. Recently, Jinchang City, Gansu Province, announced the launch of a number of medical fee reduction and exemption measures for the elderly, which sparked heated public discussions. In this regard, the National Health Insurance Administration said that under the current domestic economic conditions, it is not possible to completely exempt or significantly reduce the medical expenses of the elderly.
With the intensification of China's aging population, the medical problems of the elderly group have received extensive attention from all walks of life. Among them, whether the elderly over 60 years old can enjoy the reduction or even full exemption of medical expenses has become a hot topic of concern.
However, in response to the proposal of Hu Mei'e, a deputy to the National People's Congress, to "implement medical exemption or full exemption for the elderly over 60 years old", the National Health Insurance Administration clearly responded that at this stage, the mainland does not have enough foundation for this policy to be implemented on a large scale. According to the commentary, if the free medical care policy is adopted, it may not only narrow the coverage of basic medical services and affect the quality of services, but also may lead to excessive consumption of medical resources.
Nevertheless, the mainland has established a medical security system covering the whole population, with special emphasis on caring for the elderly. According to statistics, by the end of 2020, the participation rate of national medical insurance in mainland China has exceeded 95%, the reimbursement ratio of hospitalization expenses within the scope of employee medical insurance and resident medical insurance policies has reached about 80% and 70% respectively, and the maximum payment amount of the pooled fund is about 6 times the average annual salary and per capita disposable income of local employees. Such a fair and inclusive health insurance system can meet the needs of the majority of the population.
In fact, the current medical insurance system in mainland China already provides a certain degree of care and preferential treatment for the elderly: the basic social medical insurance exempts employees who meet the statutory retirement age and have paid contributions for a long period of time, and gives special arrangements for the crediting of personal accounts and the sharing of medical expenses. In addition, with the steady increase in the level of financial subsidies for basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents, some regions have also provided additional help for the financing of the elderly population.
However, the controversy between supporters and opponents remains. There are concerns that if free medical care is introduced, it may not really solve the medical problems of the elderly, but may bring about various negative effects. Historical experience has proved that relying on the labor insurance and public medical system for employees is not enough to meet the needs of medical security, but may lead to a waste of resources and the security system is difficult to maintain.
The state is gradually exploring the issue of "medical exemption or full exemption for the elderly over 60 years old", and our goal is to achieve full medical exemption, but we are still in the exploration stage, and there is still a certain distance from the ultimate goal. Therefore, we need to find a medical system that suits China's national conditions, and on this basis, we need to gradually realize the full exemption of medical care.
#居民医保#