Medicare system to cover all urbanites

A medical insurance network is expected to cover all urbanites in three years, a senior labor official said yesterday in Beijing.

By 2010, at least 240 million non-working urban residents, such as children and students, will benefit from a basic medical insurance scheme now being piloted in 79 cities, Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Security Hu Xiaoyi said.

Accounting for 18 percent of the country's total population, they are the last urban group to be brought under the health umbrella, which already covers workers in cities and almost all farmers in the countryside, Hu told a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.