Trade unions at all levels havebeen organizing employees' mutual aid for medical expenses, to helpemployees with serious illnesses and reduce their financial burden.In 2016 China appropriated RMB15.5 billion in medical assistancesubsidies (excluding illness emergency assistance subsidies), 92percent of which went to central and western regions, andpoverty-stricken areas, assisted 82.565 million cases, and helped55.604 million people with financial difficulties to receive basicmedical insurance. The proportion of inpatient recipients withinthe annual limit exceeded 70 percent. Medical assistance serviceshave become more convenient Bart Starr Youth Jersey , as 93 percent of the country hasrealized one-stop reimbursement from medical assistance funds andbasic medical insurance. In 2013 China set up an illness emergencyassistance fund to help unidentified patients who need immediatetreatment, or identified patients who cannot afford the relatedmedical expenses. By June 2017 some 640,000 patients had receivedhelp from the fund.
Medical security for the rural poverty-stricken population hasbeen improved. In 2016 China started to implement poverty reliefthrough healthcare. Now the rural poverty-stricken population isfully covered by both basic medical insurance and serious illnessinsurance for urban and rural residents. The inpatientreimbursement rates for the rural poverty-stricken population havebeen raised by more than five percentage points. China hasmobilized over 800,000 medical workers to visitillness-and-poverty-stricken families, and investigate 93 majordiseases with high occurrence, high treatment costs and severeimpact on work and life Ty Montgomery Youth Jersey , thereby keeping a record and setting up adatabase for poverty relief through healthcare. The countryprovides categorized treatment to rural poverty-stricken populationsuffering from serious illnesses and chronic diseases. By May 2017China had given such treatment to over 2.6 million people. Thecountry has adopted preferential policies favoring the rural poorwith respect to reimbursement from serious illness insurance. Chinaimplements a policy of treatment before payment and one-stopreimbursement for rural poverty-stricken inpatients at county-levelhospitals. In addition, China has designated 889 Grade III(top-level) hospitals to assist 1,149 county-level hospitals in allpoverty-stricken counties across the country.
VI. Significant Improvement in the Health of Special Groups
The Chinese government attaches great importance to theprotection of the right to health of special groups such as women,children, the elderly and the disabled. It constantly improveshealth programs, and provides diversified and targeted healthservices to meet the special needs of various groups in anon-discriminatory and equal manner.
The maternal and child healthcare service system has beencontinuously improved. A three-level network of maternal and childhealthcare service has been put in place in urban and rural areas.In 2016 Montravius Adams Youth Jersey , the Chinese government invested RMB2.9 billion to supportthe construction of 247 city- and county-level maternal and childhealthcare institutions. By the end of 2016, there were 3,063 suchinstitutions, 757 maternity hospitals, 117 children's hospitals,and 370 Josh Jones Youth Jersey ,000 gynecologists, obstetricians and pediatricians, andassistants. Full-time and part-time maternal and child healthcareworkers were available in 34,000 community health centers(stations), 37,000 town and township health centers and 640 Kenny Clark Youth Jersey ,000village clinics.
Antenatal and perinatal care services have been upgraded. Since2009, the Chinese government has been expanding year by year thecoverage of cervical cancer and breast cancer screening programs inrural areas, and the number of beneficiaries has grown. Between2009 and 2016, the government carried out free cervical cancerscreening for more than 60 million rural women aged 35-64 in 1,299project counties, and subsidized more than 74 million ruralpregnant and lying-in women with a special investment of RMB22.6billion. The rate of hospital deliveries for rural women increasedfrom 92.3 percent in 2008 to 99.6 percent in 2016 Jamaal Williams Youth Jersey , and rates ofmaternal and infant mortality in rural areas decreased sharply. Thegovernment arranged subsidies for 11 programs, including freepre-pregnancy examinations for healthy childbirth, hospitaldeliveries for rural women, supplementary taking of folic acid byrural women to prevent neural tube defects, and prevention ofmother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B. Thetargets of the Program for the Development of Chinese Women(2011-2020) have been met one by one.