China on Wednesday unveiled a five-year plan to improve the accessibility, affordability and sustainability of its healthcare security system, which covers more than 1.3 billion people.
Issued by the National Healthcare Security Administration, the plan sets targets for the 2026-2030 period, including making basic medical insurance services more accessible, strengthening the security of insurance funds and improving the efficiency of fund use.
It outlines 26 measures in eight areas to improve the country's multi-tiered healthcare security system, covering basic medical insurance, critical illness insurance, medical assistance, maternity insurance, commercial health insurance and long-term care insurance.
China's basic medical insurance programs covered 1.33 billion people, or 95 percent of the population, at the end of 2025. The funds, including maternity insurance, recorded revenue of 3.59 trillion yuan (about $500 billion) and expenditure of 3 trillion yuan last year.
The plan places particular emphasis on extending coverage to a changing workforce. It calls for implementing policies that allow residence permit holders to enroll in basic medical insurance and encourages flexible workers and people in new forms of employment to join the employee medical insurance program.
It also calls for clarifying the contribution responsibilities of employers and platform companies and strengthening the protection of workers' medical insurance rights.
Long-term care is another priority as China's population ages. At the end of 2025, the country had 323.38 million people aged 60 or above, accounting for 23 percent of its population. The figure is projected to exceed 400 million around 2035.
Long-term care insurance is a social insurance program that provides services or financial support for basic daily care and closely related medical nursing for people who have lost some or all of their ability to care for themselves. By the end of 2025, this insurance covered 308.55 million people, with 1.93 million receiving benefits.
Under the plan, it will be further extended, alongside efforts to expand service capacity, improve technical standards and promote innovation in the sector.
To further reduce medical costs, China will expand medical insurance catalog management beyond medicines to cover medical services and consumables, while advancing reforms in insurance payment methods and healthcare service pricing.
The measures build on the country's centralized bulk-buying program for medicines and medical devices. Prices of high-value medical consumables, including coronary stents, artificial joints and intraocular lenses, have also fallen substantially under the program.
The plan also calls for supporting pharmaceutical innovation, strengthening budget management and establishing a more robust whole-process oversight system.
To improve access to primary care, China aims to bring more than 98 percent of administrative villages with clinics under designated medical insurance management and refine reimbursement policies for different levels of medical institutions.
Other measures include upgrading online tools that allow users to compare medicine prices and locate pharmacies, expanding direct settlement for treatment received outside a patient's home region, and piloting cross-regional direct settlement of maternity-related medical expenses.
