◆ On March 6, 2022, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited the members of the agricultural sector, social welfare and social security sector who attended the Fifth Session of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and participated in the joint meeting to listen to opinions and suggestions. He stressed that it is necessary to continue to exert efforts to promote the high-quality development of social security, weave a social security safety net, and ensure the well-being of the people.
◆ China has basically established a fully functional social security system with social insurance as the main body, including social assistance, social welfare and social preferential treatment. The basic medical insurance covers 1.36 billion people, the basic old-age insurance covers 1.03 billion people and the industrial injury insurance covers 280 million people, making it the largest social security system in the world.
◆ China has completed the course that many western countries have gone through for more than 100 years in decades, and successfully built a social security system with distinctive China characteristics.
◆ In 2013, 27-year-old Jin Rainbow came here and became a grassroots labor security assistant. After more than two years, she went over mountains and went door to door to visit and preach, and the participation rate of endowment insurance in Lianghekou Town also increased from 66% to 100%
◆ The number of people participating in basic old-age insurance, unemployment insurance and industrial injury insurance in China increased from 788 million, 152 million and 190 million at the end of 2012 to 1.03 billion, 230 million and 280 million at the end of March 2022, respectively.
◆ By the end of April, 2022, 57,300 designated medical institutions connected to the Internet were directly settled across provinces, 61,000 designated medical institutions connected to the Internet and 127,300 retail pharmacies were directly settled across provinces.
◆ "In the past, I could only go back to my hometown to participate in the old-age insurance for urban and rural residents. Now I can participate in the basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance for enterprise employees in Shenzhen in my personal capacity. The treatment is higher and more in line with the actual needs. I am ready to participate in the insurance."
◆ Insist on doing our best and doing what we can, continuously improve the level of social security on the basis of sustainable economic and financial growth, and promote the high-quality and sustainable development of China’s social security cause.
Everything is long, and people’s livelihood is great.
Social security is the basic institutional guarantee to protect and improve people’s livelihood, safeguard social equity and enhance people’s well-being, and it is also an important institutional arrangement to promote economic and social development and realize that the broad masses of the people share the fruits of reform and development.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has taken universal coverage of social security as the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way, put the construction of social security system in a more prominent position, adhered to full coverage, guaranteed basic, multi-level and sustainable, made a series of major decisions and arrangements, and pushed the construction of China’s social security system into the fast lane.
China has basically established a fully functional social security system with social insurance as the main body, including social assistance, social welfare and social preferential treatment. The basic medical insurance covers 1.36 billion people, the basic old-age insurance covers 1.03 billion people and the industrial injury insurance covers 280 million people, making it the largest social security system in the world. This provides a more reliable and sufficient guarantee for the broad masses of the people and provides favorable conditions for building a well-off society in an all-round way as scheduled.
On March 6, 2022, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited the members of the agricultural sector, social welfare and social security sector who attended the Fifth Session of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and participated in the joint meeting to listen to opinions and suggestions. He stressed that it is necessary to continue to exert efforts to promote the high-quality development of social security, weave a social security safety net, and ensure the well-being of the people.
"The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader attaches great importance to the construction of the social security system, further clarifies the significance of social security and points out the next direction for us." Mo Rong, president of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security, said.
On May 12, 2022, the nurse of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University comforted the little patient Ji Chunpeng who was preparing for the examination.
The social security system has distinctive features.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s social security system has entered a period of the greatest reform, the fastest development and the widest coverage.
China has completed the course that many western countries have gone through for more than 100 years in decades, and successfully built a social security system with distinctive China characteristics. The International Social Security Association awarded the "Outstanding Achievement Award of Social Security" to the government of China, and spoke highly of China’s great achievements in expanding the coverage of social security.
Institutional reform has been deepened. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party and The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) Conferences, the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform and other conferences have repeatedly studied and deliberated the overall plan for reforming and improving the basic old-age insurance system and the opinions on deepening the reform of the medical security system, and made a top-level design for the construction of China’s social security system, with a series of major reforms progressing steadily and in depth — —
Unify the old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents, realize the integration of the old-age insurance system for government agencies, institutions and enterprises, and form two institutional platforms for employee pension and resident pension, filling the institutional gap of some groups lacking protection;
Integrate the basic medical insurance system for urban and rural residents, fully implement the serious illness insurance for urban and rural residents, set up the national medical insurance bureau, and jointly promote the "three medical linkages";
Establish and improve the central adjustment system of the basic old-age insurance fund for enterprise employees, balance the structural contradictions among provinces, and ease the pressure of fund payment in the central and western regions and old industrial bases;
Unifying the unit rate of old-age insurance and fully realizing the provincial-level co-ordination of old-age insurance have created conditions for mutual assistance in a wider scope and laid the foundation for the implementation of national co-ordination;
The construction of the trinity system of prevention, rehabilitation and compensation of industrial injury insurance has been actively promoted, and the functions of unemployment insurance to protect life, prevent unemployment and promote employment have been further highlighted … …
"The design of the social security system has been continuously improved, and the systematicness, integrity and synergy of the reform have been further enhanced. The people, regardless of urban and rural areas, regions, gender and occupations, have corresponding institutional guarantees in the face of risks such as old age, illness, unemployment, work injury, disability and poverty." Chu Fuling, director of the Social Security Research Center of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said.
Weave the world’s largest social security network. Xiaojin County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province was once a national poverty-stricken county, and Lianghekou Town is one of the most remote towns in Xiaojin County. In 2013, 27-year-old Jin Rainbow came here and became a grassroots labor security assistant. In the following two years, she went over the mountains and went door to door to visit and preach, and the participation rate of endowment insurance in Lianghekou Town also increased from 66% to 100%.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, around the goal of universal coverage and social security for all, China has vigorously implemented the universal enrollment plan and accurately promoted the enrollment of key groups. Thanks to the joint efforts of countless grassroots workers like Jin Rainbow, China has established the social security system with the largest number of people in the world, and established a national insurance database covering 1.39 billion people.
The number of people participating in basic old-age insurance, unemployment insurance and industrial injury insurance in China increased from 788 million, 152 million and 190 million at the end of 2012 to 1.03 billion, 230 million and 280 million at the end of March 2022, respectively. Nearly 100 million poor people have access to basic medical care, and 60.98 million poor people who have set up files and established cards have participated in basic old-age insurance, and the participation rate has stabilized at over 99.99%, basically achieving all the insurance coverage.
In Fishery Village, Chenxi County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province, all 148 villagers who used to make a living by fishing went ashore. Lv Jinzhen, a 75-year-old fisherman, can now get a monthly pension of 1,680 yuan and enjoy medical insurance benefits.
In recent years, the relevant departments have done a good job in the old-age insurance for fishermen who have been retired from the Yangtze River and landless farmers, and continued to promote the full coverage of basic medical care and old-age insurance. About 172,000 fishermen who have been retired from key waters have participated in the basic old-age insurance, promoting the coverage of this world’s largest social security network. Continue to expand.
The support capacity has been significantly improved. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the income and expenditure scale of China’s social security fund has been increasing, and the fund’s support and guarantee capacity has been significantly improved.
In 2021, the total income and expenditure of China’s basic medical insurance fund (including maternity insurance) were 2.87 trillion yuan and 2.4 trillion yuan respectively. By the end of 2021, the accumulated balance was 3.61 trillion yuan, benefiting more than 4 billion people to seek medical treatment, which played an important role in solving the problem of difficult and expensive medical treatment for the masses, supporting the development of medical and health undertakings, maintaining social stability and promoting common prosperity.
By the end of March 2022, the accumulated balance of three social insurance funds, namely basic pension, unemployment and work injury, was 7.18 trillion yuan, and the fund operation was generally stable. Steadily carry out the investment and operation of the basic old-age insurance fund. By the end of 2021, the entrusted contract scale of the pension fund exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan, the annual investment income was more than 63 billion yuan, and the accumulated investment income was more than 260 billion yuan, with an average annual investment return rate close to 6.5%, which promoted the preservation and appreciation of the fund on the premise of ensuring safety.
In response to the aging population, China has continuously increased the strategic reserve of the national social security fund. At present, the fund’s rights and interests are about 2.5 trillion yuan, and the total state-owned capital of central enterprises and central financial institutions has been transferred to 1.68 trillion yuan.
In response to the COVID-19 epidemic examination, the medical insurance fund pre-allocated special funds exceeding 20 billion yuan, to ensure that patients are not affected by the cost problem, to ensure that hospitals are not affected by the payment policy, to quickly raise and pre-allocate funds for vaccine procurement, and to vaccinate more than 3.4 billion doses.
The system is becoming more and more perfect, the fund runs smoothly, and the system is safe and sustainable. In the past ten years, China’s social security system has been more emboldened to meet the challenges and has a stronger ability to resist risks.
Mujintu/Journal
Social security stabilizer continues to exert its strength.
Social security is a "safety net" and a "stabilizer", which is closely related to people’s happiness and well-being.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, the level of various insurance benefits in China has been steadily improved, and the quality of service has been continuously improved, so that more people can get a sense of security, medical care and help, and play an important role in safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood.
Social security benefits have been steadily improved. "It will be issued on time every month, and it will increase by a hundred dollars every year." Speaking of pensions, Hui Dezhang, a retired worker from Xuancheng Building Materials Corporation, Anhui Province, is very satisfied. The old man retired in 1999 and got 399 yuan a month. Now his monthly pension has risen to 3,265 yuan, and it will rise by more than 100 yuan this year.
In the past ten years, China has kept the level of social security in line with economic development and steadily improved the level of various social security benefits.
The basic pension for retirees has been raised year after year — — The monthly per capita pension of enterprise employees increased from 1686 yuan in 2012 to 2987 yuan in 2021, benefiting more than 130 million retirees.
In 2022, the central government has raised the minimum standard of basic pensions for urban and rural residents four times, and all provinces have raised local basic pensions on this basis. In the first half of 2022, 12 provinces have decided to raise local basic pensions. The level of unemployment and work-related injury insurance benefits has steadily improved, and the national average monthly unemployment insurance premium level has increased from 707 yuan in 2012 to 1585 yuan in 2021.
The proportion of medical insurance reimbursement continues to increase — — Within the scope of employee medical insurance and residents’ medical insurance policies, the proportion of hospitalization expenses paid is about 80% and 70% respectively. The per capita financial subsidy standard of residents’ medical insurance has been raised from 240 yuan to 610 yuan, benefiting 1 billion urban and rural residents.
The people’s medical burden has dropped historically. The state has concentrated on purchasing 6 batches of 234 kinds of drugs with an average price reduction of 53%, and concentrated on purchasing 2 batches of consumables with an average price reduction of over 80%, thus reducing the drug consumption burden by over 500 billion yuan.
The bottom guarantee is solid and powerful. Wang Jingjiang, a villager in Dagao Village, Suixi County, Anhui Province, was poor due to illness, and the government paid the old-age insurance premium and arranged public welfare posts for him. "Now I have not only got rid of poverty, but also contracted 30 mu of land in the village, and my life is getting better and better." Wang Jingjiang said.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, relevant departments have paid pension and medical insurance premiums for needy groups, given appropriate priority to poor people in all aspects of social security implementation, such as pension, medical care, work injury, maternity and unemployment, and ensured that all the urban and rural minimum living allowances, people with special difficulties and low-income families should be guaranteed and rescued, and the social security network became stronger and stronger.
From 2017 to 2020 alone, the state paid 12.9 billion yuan to urban and rural residents for 119 million person-times. By the end of 2020, a total of 60.98 million poverty-stricken people with established files will participate in the old-age insurance, and 30.14 million poor elderly people will enjoy the old-age insurance benefits for urban and rural residents.
Nearly 100 million poor people have achieved basic medical care, and nearly 10 million poor households have achieved accurate poverty alleviation due to illness. After the overall victory in helping the fight against poverty, the protection for those in need is undiminished. In 2021, the state paid 2.68 billion yuan of old-age insurance premiums for urban and rural residents for 23.54 million needy people.
"The CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core adheres to the people’s supremacy and common prosperity, and regards improving people’s livelihood and welfare and promoting social equity as the fundamental starting point and foothold of developing social security, so that the fruits of reform and development will benefit all people more fairly." Zheng Gongcheng, president of China Social Security Society, said.
Service optimization is convenient and efficient. Apply for medical insurance card, cross-provincial medical record, medical insurance reimbursement, and receive unemployment insurance benefits … … Nowadays, more and more social security services can be handled at the "doorstep". Social security affairs that originally required "two places to run" can also be done across regions.
Rong Jingfeng, a villager who got rid of poverty in Fengjiadong Village, Shanying Town, Anyang City, Henan Province, has a personal experience: "I am inconvenient to move, and my son suffers from uremia. In the past, I asked the village cadres to drive us to the district medical insurance center to apply for medical insurance reimbursement and medical assistance. Now, you can do it without leaving the village. "
By the end of April, 2022, 57,300 designated medical institutions were directly settled across provinces, 61,000 designated medical institutions were directly settled across provinces, and 127,300 retail pharmacies were directly settled across provinces.
In addition to doing it nearby and across regions, it can also be done online. After Liu Lingzhi, a retiree from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, applied for an electronic social security card, he can scan the code to buy medicines in some pharmacies, and the medical insurance card records and pension payment can be checked online.
The number of social security card holders in China has increased from 341 million at the end of 2012 to 1.355 billion. Among them, the total number of applications for electronic social security cards has exceeded 540 million, and 43 businesses, such as receiving pension qualification certification, have achieved "one network" nationwide.
Reducing burdens and stabilizing posts to help enterprises develop. Chongqing Jiayang Taxi Co., Ltd. received a stable return fund of 220,000 yuan. Affected by the epidemic, the income of this enterprise with more than 900 employees has decreased significantly. "The support of the government’s real money is conducive to the stable employment of enterprises." Wang Qing, head of the company, said.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has implemented an unprecedented combination of "reducing, delaying, returning and supplementing" policies, that is, continuing to reduce unemployment and work-related injury insurance rates by stages, allowing three social insurance premiums to be postponed by stages according to regulations, improving the standard of returning unemployment insurance to qualified enterprises, making efforts to implement social security subsidies, training subsidies, etc., and making efforts to reduce burdens and relieve difficulties for enterprises, and stabilize and expand their posts.
For the unemployed, on the basis of regular payment of living allowance and raising the standard of unemployment insurance, we will implement the policy of expanding the coverage of unemployment insurance, so as to maximize the coverage. From January to May this year, 33.4 billion yuan of unemployment insurance benefits has been distributed to more than 5.6 million insured unemployed people.
In 2020, the three social insurances of pension, unemployment and work injury will reduce the burden on enterprises by 1.54 trillion yuan, accounting for 2/3 of the total amount of tax reduction and fee reduction. In 2021, unemployment and work-related injury insurance premiums will be reduced by over 150 billion yuan, unemployment insurance benefits will be paid 102.85 billion yuan, and unemployment insurance will be returned to 23.1 billion yuan. "In 2022, various social security policies are expected to release a policy dividend of 450 billion yuan." Yu Jiadong, Vice Minister of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said.
On June 15, 2022, villagers in Buxia Village, Nanma Street, Yiyuan County, Shandong Province rested in the activity square of Minsheng Complex. Since 2021, Yiyuan County has built a multi-in-one people’s livelihood complex with elderly canteens, public bathrooms, central village clinics (convenience pharmacies) and convenience supermarkets as the main bodies, supplemented by other service functions. Photo by Zhu Zheng/This magazine
High-quality development of social security
There is no end to safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood, only a continuous new starting point.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee defined the objectives and tasks of improving the multi-level social security system, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the long-term goal outline for 2035 drew a blueprint for the future development of China’s social security. In accordance with the planning and deployment, we will continue to deepen reform, strengthen the construction of social security system, persist in doing our best and do what we can, continuously improve the level of social security on the basis of sustainable economic and financial growth, and promote the high-quality and sustainable development of China’s social security cause.
Deepen reform and continuously improve the institutional system. Reform and innovation is an inevitable requirement to promote the social security system to be more mature and stereotyped.
In April, 2022, the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Development of Personal Pension was published, and the long-awaited personal pension system was officially released, which will effectively supplement the basic old-age insurance.
From January 1, 2022, the basic old-age insurance for enterprise employees was implemented nationwide as a whole. Qi Tao, deputy director of the Department of Endowment Insurance in Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said that after the implementation of the national overall planning system, the current surplus and deficiency of inter-regional endowment insurance funds will be adjusted nationwide to ensure that pensions are paid in full and on time, which will solve the structural contradiction of the funds in the system and make the payment of pensions in difficult areas more secure.
Accelerate the promotion of provincial-level co-ordination of industrial injury and unemployment insurance, and improve the mutual assistance ability of funds; Continue to expand the scope of mutual assistance and mutual aid of medical insurance funds, and fully realize the unification of systems and policies in the city and prefecture-level overall planning areas; Focus on guiding provinces with good basic conditions to promote provincial-level overall planning of medical insurance; According to the principles of small-step adjustment, flexible implementation, classified promotion and overall consideration, we will actively and steadily promote the gradual delay of the statutory retirement age … … A series of reforms, focusing on the hard bones that restrict the construction of social security system and aiming at breaking the imbalance between regions and the structural contradictions of funds, are being promoted to deep water areas.
"The reform of the social security system has entered the stage of system integration, coordination and high efficiency. We must adhere to the unity and standardization of the system, adhere to the problem orientation, accurately grasp the links between reforms in all aspects of social security, social security fields and other related fields, improve overall planning and coordination, promote the legalization of social security, and ensure that all reforms form an overall synergy." Mo Rong said.
Highlight key points and strive to achieve universal coverage. In November, 2021, Shenzhen completely abolished the household registration restrictions for flexible employees, which encouraged Liu Xin, a Henan takeaway rider: "In the past, I could only go back to my hometown to participate in the old-age insurance for urban and rural residents, but now I can participate in the basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance for enterprise employees in Shenzhen in my personal capacity. The treatment is higher and more in line with the actual needs. I am going to participate in the insurance."
"Full coverage" means that all residents can participate in the corresponding social insurance and get basic security according to their own conditions, which is one of the basic policies for the construction of China’s social security system.
In January 2022, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the Notice on Launching the Pilot Work of Occupational Injury Protection for Employees with New Employment Forms, and launched the pilot work of occupational injury protection for employees with new employment forms in seven provinces such as Beijing and Hainan, and seven Internet platform enterprises in the fields of travel, take-away and instant delivery, so that take-away riders and online car drivers can enjoy basically the same protection treatment as industrial injury insurance.
In addition, accurately implement the national insurance plan, improve the social insurance system for migrant workers, flexible employees and new employees, and promote the widest coverage; Promote small and medium-sized enterprises and key groups to actively participate in insurance and continue to pay fees, and guide more people to participate in insurance for a long time … … A series of measures have brought more people into the social security system, and the construction of a fairer and more sustainable social security system in China has been continuously promoted.
Strengthen supervision and keep "pension money" and "life-saving money". Perfecting the supervision system of social security funds in accordance with the law, preventing and resolving fund operation risks and maintaining fund safety are related to every "pension money", "life-saving money" and every "rescue money" and "charity money" of the people.
On May 1, 2021, the first medical insurance administrative regulation "Regulations on the Supervision and Management of the Use of Medical Insurance Funds" came into effect, aiming at solving the problems in the supervision and management of the use of medical insurance funds by means of the rule of law and becoming an effective attempt to improve the standardization, standardization and legalization of administrative law enforcement. In less than a year, the new version of "Administrative Supervision Measures for Social Insurance Funds" was promulgated and implemented, focusing on the main risks and key links in the management of social insurance funds, and refining all kinds of fraudulent insurance situations and related legal responsibilities.
Since 2018, the medical insurance fund has been fully inspected for three consecutive years and specially rectified for four consecutive years. The cumulative inspection of designated medical institutions has exceeded 2.4 million times, handling nearly 1.15 million times, exposing 120,000 cases, and recovering funds of 58.3 billion yuan. The crackdown is unprecedented. In 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security organized a special rectification of the management of social security funds throughout the system, focusing on the problems of internal personnel taking embezzlement and misappropriation of social security funds and external personnel defrauding insurance and taking more money, playing a series of combination punches, organizing on-site inspections in 27 provinces, and seriously investigating violations of laws and regulations that encroach on funds with a "zero tolerance" attitude.
On a new journey, social security work will adhere to the people-centered development idea, promote high-quality and sustainable development of social security with greater reform courage and more positive enterprising spirit, continuously enhance people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security, and lay a solid foundation for people to create a better life.
Text | "Outlook" Newsweek reporter Jiang Lin published in the 28th issue of "Outlook" in 2022.
