Premier Wen gives online interview at Xinhuanet, Gov't
Portal
Profile: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
Premier Wen's
Highlights
 |
|
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao prepares to
chat with Internet surfers on two state news portals in Beijing, China,
Feb. 28, 2009. (Xinhua Photo)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao responded to the criticism from Chinese netizens on Saturday, admitting
that to have seriously ill children rescued, a good medical system would matter
more than a good Premier.
The criticism brewed two weeks ago when media reports
said that Wen had personally donated 10,000 yuan to Li Rui and arranged for the
two-year-old suffering leukaemia from the rural area in Zhangjiakou of Hebei
Province to get hospitalized in the Beijing Chidlren's Hospital.
"I noticed the harsh criticism which says good system matters more than good Premier and understood the argument," Wen said, responding to a question on the treatment of seriously ill children in an on-line chat jointly run by the central government website (http://english.gov.cn) and the Xinhua News Agency website (http://www.chinaview.cn
).
"China has more than four million leukemic children.
Treatment for each would cost more than 100,000 yuan. But no medical insurance
in China would allow reimbursement for such large medical bills," Wen said.
"Being the Premier, I need to think about how to optimize our medical system and
have seriously ill children treated."
"We have already started to work in this direction.
But our efforts is far from enough," he said.
Although 90 percent of China's rural residents have
been covered by the country's rural medical cooperative mechanism, the per
capita reimbursement for serious diseases averages only 100 yuan a year,
demanding fiscal expenditure of nearly 10 billion yuan in total.
"The amount will rise to 120 yuan this year. But it
will remainto be only a drop in the bucket. The only way is to constantly
develop our economy and raise people's income," Wen said.
The Premier said one immediate and viable remedy
would be the establishment of a mechanism that can boldly mobilize the masses to
come to the rescue of seriously ill children.
In his first ever on-line chat, Wen detailed a newly
passed medical reform plan which involved an expenditure of 850 billion yuan
(123 billion U.S. dollars) by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the
country's 1.3 billion population.
Wen said the plan covers five aspects:
-- Expand the coverage of medical insurance. Increase
the amount of rural and urban population covered by the basic medical insurance
system to at least 90 percent by 2011.
-- Build a basic medicine system that includes a
catalogue of drugs mostly needed by the public.
-- Improve medical service systems (especially those
at the grassroots level). Build another 5,000 clinics at the township level,
2,000 hospitals at the county level and 2,400 urban community clinics in three
years.
-- Gradually provide equal public health services in
both rural and urban areas in the country.
-- Start to reform public hospitals.
"Health care reform is not easy. Our determination to
push forward the reform shows that the government cares about the health of the
public," Wen said.
"Let me assure you that a good Premier would push
forward the establishment of a good system," he said.
 |
|
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao holds an online chat with netizens jointly hosted by the central government website and Xinhua website in Beijing, China, Feb. 28, 2009. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
Photo Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here Saturday that China will strive to improve the country's health care system to make health care more accessible and affordable.
He made the comment in an online chat with netizens jointly hosted by the central government website (http://english.gov.cn) and the Xinhua News Agency website (http://www.chinaview.cn ).
 |
|
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao holds an online chat with netizens jointly hosted by the central government website and Xinhua website in Beijing, China, Feb. 28, 2009. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)
Photo Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday showed his concern over the country's jobless migrant workers and other unemployed people and encouraged them to start self-employment.
Wen said he had been deeply concerned over the employment issue, including those of migrant workers, college graduates and jobless urban families.
