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Lightening loads to strengthen lives

By Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-29 10:36

For Kang Zhixiang's family, the new plan has eliminated a long-term concern.

Kang praised the new plan as illustrative of China's support for its disadvantaged population.

"In the media, we always hear our national leaders say they would care for the disadvantaged. This time, we feel that is happening with the new medical care plan," he said.

Kang's family is among the luckier ones, as Beijing, which has more than 2,500 communities like Xiaoguan, is one of the first metropolitan areas in the country that has healthcare coverage for its entire population.

The new healthcare plan will benefit more than 470,000 of Beijing's 17 million citizens, according to the Labor and Social Security Bureau of Beijing.

Anhui province followed suit and launched the basic healthcare plan for its residents on Aug 1.

But for the most part of China, except cities in a number of developed provinces on the coast or in the east, the universal healthcare system has not been implemented.

This imbalance has become a major challenge for China's efforts to improve healthcare for the disabled, analysts have said.

China has about 83 million people with disabilities, according to the China Disabled Persons' Federation, who conducted a nationwide survey on the issue in 2006.

In richer regions, such as in the east and south coast provinces, healthcare for the disabled is much better than other parts of the country, Professor Hu Zhenglu of the public health department of Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University told China Daily.

"People with disabilities are now covered by healthcare schemes in cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan," Hu said.

The disabled in Xiamen, Fujian province, are also covered by a universal healthcare system.

But he also pointed out this is only because these cities already had universal healthcare for all local citizens, not because they have implemented any schemes exclusively for the disabled.

"Financial difficulty is still the key obstacle for many regions wanting to develop healthcare for disabled," Hu said.

In Tengzhou city of Shandong province, the local government recently launched a universal healthcare system about 10 days ago.

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