Public medical insurance system benefits 93 percent of Chinese

The public medical insurance system on the Chinese mainland currently covers over 1.25 billion people, or about 93 percent of the mainland's total population, according to a health official. The Chinese mainland's rural cooperative medical system has provided 835 million people with health care, while another 421 million are covered by basic medical insurance systems for urban dwellers, said Zhang Zongjiu, director of the Department of Medical Service Supervision of the Ministry of Health. Zhang made the remarks at an ongoing health forum of hospitals from the mainland and Taiwan, which was held in Hangzhou, the capital city of eastern Zhejiang Province. In the first half of 2011, the Chinese government spent more than 245 billion yuan (about 38.4 billion U.S. dollars) on health care, up 61.4 percent year-on-year, according to a report submitted to the country's top legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, in late August.