Fund to cover employed, new mothers By Liu Li (China Daily) Updated: 2005-02-02 01:50
A special insurance fund will go into force in July to cover medical fees and
maternity leave for new mothers in Beijing, who are urban employees.
It is part of a local regulation for birth insurance, which has been adopted
by the Beijing municipal government.
It will cover women who are permanent residents in the capital and work for
urban enterprises.
It is the fifth social insurance item to be added in Beijing following
endowment, medical, employment and industrial injury coverage.
Under the new mother's regulation, enterprises are required to contribute to
the fund.
An estimated 1.1 million employed women who are of childbearing age will be
covered.
According to the regulation, the fund will be used to pay for medical exams,
delivery itself, necessary operations, and the cost of hospitalization and
medicines.
Women who are eligible for the fund but give birth at hospitals in Hong Kong,
Macao, Taiwan and foreign countries will not be covered.
Subsidies
Under the new terms, subsidies will be paid to new mums for 90 days, with 15
days added to paid maternity leave if they experienced difficulties during
delivery.
If they have twins, another 15 days of maternity leave will be added.
"Currently, some enterprises are unwilling to hire female workers. That is
largely because employers do not want to pay for their workers when they are
away from work, giving birth to children," Wang Dexiu, deputy director of the
Beijing Municipal Bureau of Labour and Social Security, was quoted by the Xinhua
News Agency as saying.
"With the adoption of the new regulation, all urban enterprises have to pay
for the fund, no matter whether they have female workers or not."
Wang said he believed the adoption of the insurance system would promote
fairer employment opportunities for women.
"Meanwhile, the system will aid those enterprises that have comparatively
bigger amounts of female workers," Wang said.
If an enterprise refuses to pay, it still needs to directly pay the woman who
gives birth to a child the amount of money fixed by the regulation, according to
Wang.More details about the regulation will be released to the public before the
middle of the year.
Government staff
Currently, government staff are the best looked after once giving birth.
However, women in private enterprises are dictated to by their employers,
sources say.
Women who are unemployed have to cover the costs themselves.
Most online comments appearing on www.sina.com.cn yesterday were about the
new insurance system.
But some people complained about the fact that only those with permanent
residency would benefit.
"I have registered residency in Beijing but my wife does not. Then we are
excluded. Is it fair?" an anonymous person said online yesterday.
Some said the government should pay for the fund, instead of
enterprises.
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