China to speed up development of commercial health insurance

China will speed up development of commercial health insurance to support ongoing medical reforms and meet public demand for better healthcare services, an executive meeting of the State Council decided on Wednesday.

The discussion concluded it was necessary to mobilize social strength through reform and develop commercial health insurance, which, along with the basic medical insurance system, would help meet public demand and develop the health care services industry.

China will strive to set up a system of medical insurance for serious illness and raise reimbursement for patients suffering critical illness.

Insurance companies in China will be allowed to carry out large-scale medical insurance services for urban and rural residents. Funds will be allocated from the basic medical insurance for urban residents and the new rural cooperative medical care system.

The government will increase expenditure on medical services, and encourage insurance companies to engage in diverse forms of business.

The government will also encourage social capital to establish health insurance companies, and encourage insurance companies to build new medical and health examination facilities, as well as community nursing facilities for the elderly, the meeting said.

Currently, over 90 percent of China's 1.3-billion population is participating in different forms of medical insurance -- with medical insurance for non-working urban workers, basic medical insurance for city dwellers, and the new rural cooperative medical care system for rural residents.

China vowed to expand its healthcare service sector to a value of 8 trillion yuan (1.3 trillion U.S. dollars) by 2020.

The executive meeting also made arrangements on construction of major projects, which it said would help to fix the weakness of the Chinese economy.

"We should stick to the targeted macro control (policy), and secure a stable economic and social development with a long-term solution," the meeting said.

In 2014 and 2015, China will speed up construction on major projects in three aspects -- environment protection, healthcare facilities, and clean energy.

In terms of clean energy, China will start construction on a batch of generation projects for wind, hydro, photovoltaic and nuclear power

The meeting called for further reform in investment and financing to attract more social investment into these projects.