Yesterday, the State Council Information Office held a series of themed press conferences on "Completing the 14th Five Year Plan with High Quality", introducing the relevant situation of deepening medical insurance reform and serving economic and social development during the 14th Five Year Plan period. Zhang Ke, Director of the National Healthcare Security Administration, stated that the national basic medical insurance participation rate during the 14th Five Year Plan period has remained stable at around 95%, with a cumulative expenditure of 12.13 trillion yuan from the medical insurance fund and an average annual growth rate of 9.1%. In 2024, the basic medical insurance fund expenditure will be 2.98 trillion yuan, and the personal burden on patients will decrease by about 5% year-on-year. Since the 14th Five Year Plan, China's medical security has focused on addressing the urgent needs and concerns of the people in terms of caring for the "small", taking care of the "old", safeguarding the "sick", and supporting the "new". Zhang Ke introduced that from 2021 to 2024, nearly 20 billion medical visits have been reimbursed by medical insurance, which is 1.6 times higher than in 2020. In terms of caring for the "small", maternity insurance protection continues to strengthen. As of June 2025, 253 million people have participated in maternity insurance, with a total fund expenditure of 438.3 billion yuan and 96.1432 million beneficiaries; 31 provinces and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have included assisted reproductive projects in medical insurance reimbursement; Nearly 60% of the overall planning areas in the country directly distribute maternity allowances to insured female employees. In terms of taking care of the elderly, China is promoting the establishment of a long-term care insurance system. By the end of 2024, 190 million people will participate in long-term care insurance to properly address the issue of long-term care for disabled individuals. At the same time, over 95% of village clinics will be included in medical insurance, making it convenient for elderly people to seek medical treatment at their doorstep. Medical insurance insists on protecting the 'sick', and we actively include eligible medical institutions in the designated medical insurance. As of June 2025, the number of designated medical institutions for medical insurance in China has reached 1.1 million. ”Zhang Ke said. In order to facilitate cross provincial medical treatment for the public, cross provincial direct settlement of outpatient chronic and special diseases has emerged from scratch. There are 644000 designated medical institutions across provinces in China, and over the past four years, cross provincial direct settlement of medical treatment has benefited 560 million people nationwide, reducing the advance payment of insured people by 590 billion yuan. Centralized procurement selection is no longer simply based on the lowest quotation as a reference. In the past four years, medical insurance has also been supporting the "new" approach. Zhang Ke introduced that the National Healthcare Security Administration insists on dynamically adjusting the list of medical insurance drugs, promoting more new and good drugs to be included in the medical insurance list as soon as possible. Since the 14th Five Year Plan, a total of 402 drugs have been included in the list. At the same time, we will continue to deepen the reform of medical insurance payment methods, issue 30 batches of guidelines for the establishment of medical service price projects, and promote the clinical application of new technologies and equipment. Shi Zihai, Deputy Director of the National Medical Security Administration, further pointed out that the 11th batch of centralized procurement work has been launched recently. According to the optimized centralized procurement measures approved by the State Council executive meeting, the National Medical Insurance Administration adheres to the principles of "stabilizing clinical practice, ensuring quality, preventing bid rigging, and combating internal competition", and has studied and optimized specific procurement rules. In terms of reporting volume, pharmaceutical institutions can choose to report specific brands and list the brands they recognize and want to use. In terms of selection rules, the "anchor point" for price difference calculation has been optimized, no longer using the simple lowest price as a reference. At the same time, the enterprise with the lowest quotation must publicly explain the rationality of the quotation and promise not to quote below the cost. In terms of quality assurance, it is required that the production line of the bidding drugs does not violate the drug production quality management standards within two years, and the drug regulatory department has "full coverage" of inspection and product sampling for the selected enterprises in centralized procurement. (New Society)