Health insurance plan in the works

The State Council recently promised a plan for the transfer of health insurance nationwide. But the plan might need financial support, says an article on the Beijing News. Excerpts:

Transferring health insurance has always been a headache for those working outside their hometowns. Usually, people can easily transfer their accounts out of the place where they work, but often meet difficulties in transferring it to the place where they will be residing.

That's obviously unfair. The root of the problem is that the law only allows workers to transfer their personal accounts, without mentioning whether public accounts, or the insurance their employers have already paid for them, could be transferred together. Some regions refuse such transfers because that means losses for them.

One seemingly direct solution seems to be allowing public accounts to be transferred together. But as different cities have different standards, that would also create many new problems.

The specific interests of different regions caused the problem. None of the parties involved are willing to take on any fresh burdens, while everyone is glad to get rid of old burdens.

To get things done, maybe the government can make some contributions from the giant reserves. It would be advisable to set up a common fund by taking a part of the public accounts of all the regions, to pay for the losses caused by the transfer.

Of course, that's only an alternate plan. The ultimate solution lies in regulating the nation's health insurance sector, so as to make the transfer no longer necessary.

From the Beijing News

Translated by Zhang Zhouxiang