Wen plans pilot medical insurance scheme to help urban residents

Beijing now plans to spend three years to weave together a health insurance scheme for urban dwellers not included in the present medical insurance scheme for staff, Premier Wen Jiabao has said.

The Urban Residents' Basic Medical Insurance Scheme will help fill a crucial gap in the mainland's social security system by providing insurance to primary and secondary school students, adolescents, the elderly and disabled people who have been left out of the existing medical insurance scheme in cities.

'The economy of our country is developing rapidly and the government's income is growing relatively fast. Time is ripe to build a resident basic medical insurance scheme,' Mr Wen said at a meeting to discuss the launch of pilot schemes.

'The State Council has decided to launch pilot cases this year and introduce it to cities and towns nationwide in three years.'

On Monday, the Ministry of Finance reported a 30.6 per cent increase of fiscal revenue to 2.6 trillion yuan in the first half of the year.

Vice-Premier Wu Yi said at the meeting that the first batch of 79 pilot cases would start by September.

A joint conference will review their progress by the end of this year. An assessment of the cases in January will give the government clues about how to expand the experiment next year.