Healthcare assistance benefits 60m Chinese in 2010

BEIJING - China poured 15.2 billion yuan ($2.31 billion) into its healthcare assistance fund last year, which benefited more than 60 million rural and urban patients, Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo said Tuesday.

The healthcare assistance fund is mainly composed of government spending and social donations, covering urban and rural residents who live on minimum living standard.

Rural residents joining in a cooperative medical care system, a pilot program initiated in 2003 to help farmers recover some of their medical expenses, are also eligible for the fund.

By the end of 2010, more than 75.39 million rural and urban Chinese had been covered in the country's minimum living standard system.