Rural China 8: Investing in health

In the eighth part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark visits the local doctors in Kengxi village who explain how the recent rural health insurance initiatives have benefitted the local community.

Back in 2005 medical insurance was predominantly for city dwellers, covering only about a quarter of China’s population and 80 percent of all the medical facilities were based in urban areas. To offset this imbalance, China set out a five-year plan to rebuild the rural medical service system by supporting the construction of county-level hospitals, grassroots medical care institutions and village clinics. They also set up a new affordable rural healthcare insurance, all in all spending 1.13 trillion yuan over the last three years, according to Vice Minister of Finance Wang Jun.

Also see a slideshow

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Snow & mountains

Part 3: Growing benefits

Part 4: A new education

Part 5: A road to prosperity

Part 6: Spring Festival return

Part 7: A tap in every home

Part 8: Investing in health

Part 9: Securing the future

Part 10: The next ten years

Click here for the vBook of Rural China

By D J Clark

Animation and Logistics: Xu Jiye

Producer: Flora Yue

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See more videos at:D J Clark's Video Column

About D J Clark

D J Clark has worked worldwide as a multimedia journalist for more than 20 years. As well as working for China Daily he runs an MA course in Multimedia journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University and is the Director of Visual Journalism at the Asia Center for Journalism in Manila, Philippines.