The State Council approved a plan to promote high-quality development of a medical security system during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), according to a circular released on Sept 29.

With the aim of guaranteeing people’s health and pushing for common prosperity, the plan will be implemented under the overall leadership of the Communist Party of China, with people’s health at the core, to ensure its sustainable development, the circular said.

According to the circular, by 2025, the medical security system will become more mature. The reform on multiple major mechanisms and key areas of health services will be basically finished.

By 2035, the basic medical security system will be more standardized and unified, according to the plan, and a multilayered medical security system will be well-established.

Establishing a sound and multilayered medical security system requires improving the quality of basic medical insurance by classifying medical insurance participants according to laws and regulations, expanding medical insurance coverage, and improving services on medical insurance fees collection.

The plan calls for further improving the medical insurance treatment mechanism and fundraising mechanism, and encouraging the development of commercial health insurance.

The plan also supports efforts to develop a medical mutual assistance system and a long-term nursing insurance system.

Payment mechanisms for medical insurance will be further optimized, with an improved adjustment mechanism for a medicine catalog, and better management on medical consumables.

The mechanism for medicine pricing will be improved, with reforms in centralized procurement of drugs and medical consumables in large quantities, and a price control mechanism for both.

Supervision on the use of medical insurance funds will also be further improved.

Moreover, a modern healthcare service system with urban tertiary hospitals, county-level hospitals and grassroots medical institutes in collaboration should be enhanced.

The circular also urged building a solid support system for healthcare services by establishing standardized healthcare public services and improving direct settlement for off-site medical treatment, enhancing legal support, strengthening management on medical insurance funds, and ensuring data security of medical care information.

A unified national healthcare information platform will also be established, according to the circular.