Medical security gap to exceed 75b yuan in 2014

The Beijing branch of Swiss Reinsurance Co Ltd said the funding gap of China's medical insurance is expected to reach 75.87 billion yuan ($12.2 billion) in 2014, National Business Daily reported on Thursday.

The medical security gap in the Asia-Pacific region may grow to $197 billion by 2020, according to a newly published report by Swiss Reinsurance.

The report studies 13 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region, including China India, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

China ranks the first in the medical security gap among the 13 countries, with a $12.2 billion shortage by 2014 and $73 billion by 2020.

A medical security gap refers to the disparity between the costs that meet people's demand for healthcare and the funds that can be used to pay the costs, when the proportion of total social medical care expenditure to GDP remains constant.

China, India Japan and South Korea will have the largest medical security gap before 2020. The medical care cost in the Asia-Pacific region will increase to 2.7 trillion yuan in 2020 from 1.2 trillion yuan in 2010, the report said.

With economic growth and rising family incomes in the region, healthcare expenditure will definitely increase, Huang Shuohui, an official from Swiss Reinsurance said.

mengfanbin@chinadaily.com.cn