China has issued 1 billion social security cards as it works towards its goal of providing them to 90 percent of the population by 2020.
China aims to have full coverage of social insurance, steadily raise the level of social security pooling to establish a more convenient social insurance transfer and renewal mechanism, and implement social security card system to ensure that 90 percent of the population enjoys social security coverage in the 13th Five-Year Plan between 2016 and 2020.
Since the first social security card was issued in Shanghai in 1999, about 72 percent of the Chinese people have received a card, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said.
Six major functions of social security cards including electronic vouchers, information records, self-service inquiries, medical settlement and payment, have been popularized and the functions are expanding, the Ministry said.
People with a social security card can settle their medical bills in over 90 percent of Chinese cities. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is promoting direct settlement of trans-provincial medical expenses, according to the report.
The social security card has also been approved for other government public services such as civil affairs, health care, provident fund, disabled services and agriculture-related subsidies, the report said.
In 2016, the government spent 1.3 trillion yuan on medical and health care, a 10-percent increase from 2015.
