Insurance to cover serious illnesses

China on Thursday announced a decision to expand the coverage of the country's healthcare insurance system to include the treatment of critical illnesses, aiming to prevent patients from being reduced to poverty by necessary healthcare costs.

The new arrangement will further increase the level of protection that China's healthcare insurance system can offer, according to a document co-issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and five other central government departments.

Sun Zhigang, head of the health reform office under the State Council, said it aims to ensure that each patient's total medical expenditure is no more than the "household expenditure for healthcare," which is set at the level of the regional annual per capita disposable or net income.