Beijing to raise medical reimbursement level

Beijing municipal government has decided to raise the individual health reimbursement level to 300,000 yuan, from the current 170,000. The move will save Beijingers nearly 1 billion yuan each year.

The municipal government said the large scaled individual reimbursement level will be raised to 300,000 yuan for each person in each year, as well as to lift the reimbursement ratio for clinic expenses.

If a Beijing resident goes to a clinic within one's community, the reimbursement ratio will be raised to 90 percent, while the ratio will be 70 percent if one choose a hospital outside one's community.

In addition, inpatients with medicare could now get a maximum refund of 150,000 yuan, from the current 70,000.

The Beijing Municipal government will launch 8 measures within this year to upgrade its medicare system.

Jiang Jiyuan, Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, said, "The municipal government will continue to launch some measures in the second quarter, including a medicine catalogue, diagnosis catalogue, and extending the scale of peculiar diseases, raise reimbursement standard for artificial organ, and to establish a clinic system for rural residents."

There have not been any uniform adjustments for the medicare system around the country, so local governments could upgrade their systems according to their actual circumstances.