In fact, for Shenmu County, the realization of "universal free medical care" is not as magical as people think.
"Shenmu County has been ranked first among Shaanxi's top economic counties for several years, and the distance from second place is very large." Guo Baocheng, secretary of Shenmu County's county party committee, told China Economic Weekly that the county's total revenue is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan this year.
Benefiting from its rich coal resources, Shenmu County's comprehensive economic strength is currently ranked 92nd in the country, 5th in the west, and 1st in Shaanxi Province.In 2008, the county's total fiscal revenue was 7.227 billion yuan, of which 1.719 billion yuan was local revenue, while the per capita net income of peasants was 6,028 yuan, and the per capita disposable income of urban residents was 16,075 yuan.
"Shenmu currently has 50 billion tons of proven coal reserves, which can last for 400 years based on the current annual output of 120 million tons." Lei Jiangsheng, standing committee member of Shenmu County's county committee and propaganda minister, told China Economic Weekly, "Strong financial resources are the foundation on which the 'universal free medical care system' can be implemented. At the same time, with a population of only 400,000 and its location in the west, the county's medical fees are not too high, which is why the finances can afford it."
The cause of Shenmu County's implementation of "universal free medical care" was not a "whim" of the leadership team.
"As we all know, Shenmu's GDP is supported by a handful of coal bosses, but their wealth represents only a portion of the population, and most of the county's nearly 400,000 people are still ordinary people. The people if they can not enjoy the financial affluence to bring them the benefits, then Shenmu's rich can only show off on the surface." Guo Baocheng told reporters, to solve the majority of people do not have the money to see a doctor, due to the reality of the disease back to poverty is the Shenmu implementation of "universal free medical" system of the fundamental starting point.
From March 1 this year, Shenmu's "universal free medical" system began to be implemented.
According to the "Shenmu County Universal Free Medical Care Implementation Measures (Trial)", all county cadres and workers and urban and rural residents with Shenmu household registration and participating in urban and rural residents' cooperative medical care and employees' basic medical care insurance, and receiving medical treatment at designated medical institutions (21 in townships, 7 at the county level, 5 at the municipal level, 5 at the provincial level, and 6 hospitals in Beijing, as well as 5 designated pharmacies at the county level) are entitled to outpatient medical care and hospitalization reimbursement systems. Medical card and hospitalization reimbursement system. Each person is entitled to an annual outpatient subsidy of 100 yuan, and the balance of the outpatient medical card can be carried over for use and inheritance. There is a starting line for hospitalization reimbursement throughout the year. The starting line for hospitalization reimbursement in township hospitals is RMB 200 per person per visit, in county hospitals it is RMB 400 per person per visit, and in hospitals outside of county borders it is RMB 3,000 per person per visit. The patient pays for hospitalization expenses below the threshold (including the threshold), while the portion above the threshold is fully reimbursed if the cumulative reimbursement does not exceed 300,000 yuan per person per year.
In addition, Shenmu also includes special examination fees, treatment fees and material fees for the installation of artificial organs and organ transplants in the scope of reimbursement, and stipulates corresponding reimbursement ratios for some special illnesses, such as cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, kidney disease and severe wasting disease, etc., which cannot eat and need to rely on nutritive fluids to sustain their lives, or certain special illnesses that must be treated with biologics, and the cost of using nutritive medicines is reimbursed by 80%; 90% reimbursement of the cost of blood products that must be used if the disease of the blood system, other diseases cause severe anemia or hemorrhage during various surgeries. Because of the condition, need to do CT, ECT, nuclear magnetic **** vibration and other large instruments, equipment check, the cost of reimbursement of 90%; because of the condition of the need for organ transplants or catheters, stents and other interventional therapy, the domestic materials reimbursement of 90%, the imported materials reimbursement of 70%
According to the reporter's understanding, earlier last year, in the "universal free medical care" in the preliminary validation stage.
According to the reporter, earlier last year, in the "universal free medical care" preliminary demonstration stage, Shenmu County began to plan some of this year's project, budgeted 1.3 billion in spending, including "universal free medical care" in 2009, 150 million.
"Using 1/8 of the planned expenditure to reimburse the people for medical expenses will not affect other work in the county. In the same vein, our county started 12 years of free education several years ago." In the interview process, Guo Baocheng repeatedly emphasized that "money is not a problem".