Ocean of good from health insurance reform

Those disenchanted by the ongoing health insurance reform should take a look at the following famous fable from Zen to understand how it works.

"How to protect a drop of water from drying out?"

"Put it in the ocean."

Since Jan 1, one province after another has been implementing the reform by cutting the size of money in personal health insurance accounts so as to better cover the needy.

The move has made many worry that their interests will be hit with their personal accounts shrinking. A glimpse into the history of health insurance will bring clarity.

To ensure everybody could afford medical costs, years ago China introduced a social security system that contains a health insurance fund to which every resident pays a small sum of money; his/her employer, if there is one, also pays the same account. When one is admitted to hospital for some ailment, a percentage of the medical costs can be reimbursed from this fund.

Before computerization, calculating the transactions was a huge task. For the sake of convenience, the fund set up a personal account for everyone, putting in a small amount of money. Those running up huge medical bills received partial reimbursement from this fund.

By shrinking this public fund, the money saved will increase the percentage of reimbursement, benefiting more people in a better way.

In other words, looking at the money in one's personal account one might assume this is not a good move, but they will see the benefits when they, god forbid, fall ill and are admitted to hospital.

Anyone with a normal income cannot hang too much hope on the personal account, which gets credited only a few hundred yuan a month, barely enough to even visit a hospital once. That is like a drop of water. However, as indicated in the Zen fable above, with 1.36 billion participants, the drops of water swell to become an ocean, which can protect the water from drying up.

Of course, it is time to simplify the reimbursement procedure and widen coverage, so that people realize the sense of benefit.