City and rural residents benefit from new policy

Poor or disabled Beijingers can check in and out of selected medical clinics citywide for free, it was announced on Monday.

Under a new policy, urban residents unable to work and with no income, as well as the people who care for them, are now exempt from paying admittance deposits or discharge fees at 51 designated hospitals. Countryside dwellers aged under 18 or over 60, or who are disabled, are also included.

The capital's civil affairs bureau will also pick up the bill for any medical expenses incurred that are not covered by their insurance or the new rural cooperative scheme.

"This is a great relief to me," said Zhang Jingli, a 69-year-old disabled man living alone in Xiaoguan community, Chaoyang district. "Now I don't have to worry too much if I need to be hospitalized."

As well as providing for the poor, the policy also means low-income families will need to pay just 40 percent of the deposit and 40 percent of their medical costs.

"This policy is aimed at further improving the medical assistance system for citizens in poverty," said Li Jing, a spokeswoman for the bureau on Monday, who added that qualified patients can apply for the benefits by presenting a diagnosis report and certificate from their community office.

Details have been posted in all neighborhoods across Beijing, while officials will visit isolated or elderly residents door to door, she said.

Wan Wenyi, director of civil affairs for Fengtai district, which started offering disadvantaged families help with hospital deposits for serious illnesses in 2007, said he has been expecting the new measures for years and that he believes they will make a huge positive impact.

"These deposits, which patients need to pay before they can be hospitalized, range from 5,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan - and can sometimes be a matter of life and death for poor families," Wan told METRO.

He cited the case of a pregnant woman from Wangzuo town in Fengtai who died giving birth in unhygienic conditions after being rejected by a hospital because she did not have enough money.

"With this new policy, I hope there won't be any more sad stories like this one," he added.

An administrator who gave her name as Yang at Beijing No 6 Hospital in Dongcheng district, one of the 51 designated units, said her office has been preparing for the free move since late March. However, so far no patients have qualified for the benefit.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/17/2011)