China to allow patients to claim medical insurance for visits to private hospitals

China will allow patients to claim medical insurance for visits to private hospitals, its main administrative authority said, marking the latest move from Beijing to ease pressure on the country’s over-burdened public healthcare system.

“In order to satisfy everyone’s diverse healthcare needs, we are lowering the threshold for private healthcare providers,” China’s State Council said on its website.

Other planned measures include offering preferential tax treatment to private hospitals and streamlining the approval process to set up a hospital or clinic, it said.

It will also aim to give equal treatment to medical staff regardless of whether they work in the public or private system and eliminate requirements on the number of beds per hospital.

China announced a five-year roadmap in March outlining a plan to double the number of its general doctors by 2020, trim its public sector and improve technology as it seeks to fix a healthcare system plagued by snarling queues and poor rural services.