China unveils five-year plan to strengthen healthcare security for more than 1.3 billion people
Dragon Media News Desk
China has unveiled a five-year plan aimed at making its healthcare security system more accessible, affordable and sustainable for more than 1.3 billion people.
Issued by the National Healthcare Security Administration, the plan covers the 2026–2030 period and focuses on expanding access to basic medical insurance, strengthening the security of insurance funds and improving the efficiency of fund use.
The plan sets out 26 measures across eight areas to improve China’s multi-tiered healthcare security system. These include basic medical insurance, critical illness insurance, medical assistance, maternity insurance, commercial health insurance and long-term care insurance.
By the end of 2025, China’s basic medical insurance programmes covered 1.33 billion people, equivalent to around 95 percent of the population.
Funds covering basic medical insurance and maternity insurance recorded revenue of 3.59 trillion yuan in 2025, while expenditure reached around 3 trillion yuan.
A major focus of the new plan is extending healthcare protection to workers in a changing labour market.
The plan calls for policies allowing residence permit holders to enroll in basic medical insurance and encourages people in flexible employment and new forms of work to participate in employee medical insurance programmes.
It also seeks to clarify the contribution responsibilities of employers and platform companies and strengthen the protection of workers’ medical insurance rights.
Long-term care insurance is another major priority as China’s population continues to age.
At the end of 2025, China had 323.38 million people aged 60 or above, accounting for 23 percent of the population. The number is projected to exceed 400 million around 2035.
Long-term care insurance is designed to provide services or financial support for people who have lost part or all of their ability to care for themselves and require assistance with daily activities and related medical nursing.
By the end of 2025, long-term care insurance covered 308.55 million people, while 1.93 million were receiving benefits.
Under the new plan, coverage will be further expanded, alongside efforts to improve service capacity, technical standards and innovation in the long-term care sector.
China also plans to further reduce medical costs by expanding medical insurance catalogue management beyond medicines to include medical services and consumables.
Reforms will also continue in insurance payment methods and healthcare service pricing.
These measures build on China’s centralized bulk-purchasing programme for medicines and medical devices, which has reduced prices for a range of high-value medical consumables, including coronary stents, artificial joints and intraocular lenses.
The plan also calls for stronger support for pharmaceutical innovation, tighter budget management and a more comprehensive oversight system covering the entire process of healthcare fund use.
To improve access to primary healthcare, China aims to bring more than 98 percent of administrative villages with clinics under designated medical insurance management.
Reimbursement policies for treatment at different levels of medical institutions will also be further refined.
Other measures include upgrading online tools that allow users to compare medicine prices and locate pharmacies, expanding direct settlement for medical treatment received outside a patient’s home region, and piloting cross-regional direct settlement of maternity-related medical expenses.
The five-year plan indicates that China is seeking to move beyond simply expanding insurance coverage and toward addressing broader structural challenges, including population ageing, new employment patterns, rising medical costs, rural healthcare access and the long-term sustainability of healthcare funds.
