China targets average life expectancy at 73 by 2010

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-13 14:27

BEIJING -- The average life expectancy of Chinese is expected to reach 73 years by 2010, according to the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) released Monday by the Information Office of the State Council, or Cabinet.

The basic framework for the basic health care system covering the entire nation will be established by 2010, to make China among the countries where the national basic health service is available, according to the plan.

The main goals expected to be reached in 2010 also includes: infant mortality rate, below 14.9 per thousand; mortality rate of children under five, below 17.7 per thousand; mortality rate of pregnant and lying-in women, below 40 per 100,000; and the free national immunity vaccination program for children, 95 percent in cities and 90 percent in the countryside.

The action plan says the government is going to expedite the establishment of the basic medical care system. By 2010, the allowances from the budgets of governments at all levels to urban residents covered by medical insurance and rural residents covered by new rural cooperative medical services will be raised to 120 yuan (nearly $20) per person annually.

Within three years, efforts will be made to support the construction of 2,000 county-level hospitals starting from 2009, so that every county will have at least one up-to-standard hospital, while 3,700 community health service centers and 11,000 community health service stations will be built or renovated in cities.

"In large and medium-sized cities, one community health service center will be built for every 30,000-100,000 residents or in every neighborhood", the plan says.

By 2010, a new rural cooperative medical care system will cover virtually all the rural residents. Every township will have a government-run hospital, and every administrative village will have a clinic, it says.

The government will provide safe drinking water for another 60 million rural population in 2009, so as to realize the goal of "halving the proportion of the population unable to get sustainable safe drinking water by 2015" set by the United Nations, ahead of schedule, according to the government action plan.