National insurance extended to 1.32b

China's basic national medical insurance covered 1.32 billion people from January to May, an increase of 4.69 million compared with the same period last year, the National Healthcare Security Administration said on Thursday.

The number of people covered by the employee insurance program — mainly for urban employees — rose by 7.16 million year-on-year to 386 million, while enrollment in the residents program, which primarily covers rural residents and migrant workers, fell by 2.46 million to 923 million.

"The simultaneous increase and decrease reflect a continued optimization of the nation's insurance participation structure, and the medical insurance fund has remained generally stable," Wang Guodong, an official with the administration, said at a news conference.

During the first five months, the national medical insurance fund recorded income of 1.61 trillion yuan ($236.8 billion), up 4.89 percent year-on-year. Expenditure totaled 1.21 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.12 percent from a year earlier, Wang said.

Efforts are underway to further expand coverage for flexible workers, migrant workers and people engaged in new forms of employment, said Zhang Chenguang, deputy director of the administration's department of planning, finance and regulation.

Last year, about 69.8 million people in those groups were enrolled in employee insurance plans, up 20 million from 2021. The administration is planning a dedicated campaign to further increase coverage, he said.

Regarding the development of the nation's long-term care insurance program, 17 provincial-level regions have released implementation plans, and more than 30,000 caregivers have been certified.

A total of 320 million people have enrolled in the program so far, and about 1.37 million received benefits from January to May, said Liu Juan, deputy director of the administration's benefits security department.

Meanwhile, efforts have been made to expand maternity insurance coverage and improve reimbursement levels. As of recently, 28 provincial-level regions have fully covered inpatient delivery costs for eligible insured female employees, while local authorities have been guided to gradually increase reimbursement for prenatal examination costs.

"In 2025, maternity insurance covered 260 million people, and 4.8 million received maternity subsidies. On average, each insured female employee received nearly 30,000 yuan in maternity allowances," Liu said.

She added that all provincial-level regions have included assisted reproductive technology in medical insurance coverage. In 2025 alone, more than 1.6 million insured residents benefited from the policy. Labor pain relief therapies have so far been included in medical insurance coverage in 30 provincial-level regions.

wangxiaoyu@chinadaily.com.cn