Multiple departments issued notices to expand the scale of basic health insurance enrolment for flexible workers and other groups

The Zhitong Finance App learned that recently, six departments including the National Health Insurance Administration, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Transport recently jointly issued a notice to launch a special campaign to improve the quality of basic medical insurance for people with flexible employment, migrant workers, and people with new forms of employment. The notice mentioned that the plan is to continue to expand the basic health insurance coverage scale for people with flexible employment and other groups over a period of about 3 years, focusing on increasing the number of workers enrolled in health insurance.

China will push megacities to lift household registration restrictions on flexible workers enrolling in insurance. On the basis of ensuring the balance of income and expenditure of health insurance funds, each region can reasonably determine the health insurance contribution base for people with flexible employment by referring to the basic pension insurance contribution base for local workers. Flexible workers participate in employee health insurance. The payment period can be accumulated on a monthly basis, and every 12 months completed is converted into a 1-year payment period.

The original text is as follows:

Office of the National Health Insurance Administration General Office of the Ministry of Finance General Office of the Ministry of Transport

General Office of the Ministry of Commerce General Office of the State Administration of Taxation Office of the State Post Office

Notice of the General Office of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions on Launching a Special Campaign to Improve the Quality of Basic Medical Insurance for People with Flexible Employment, Migrant Workers, and People with New Forms of Employment

All provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps medical security bureaus, finance departments (bureaus), transportation departments (bureaus, committees), commercial authorities, postal administrations, trade unions, and provincial, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government of the State Administration of Taxation:

In order to further implement the work requirements of the “Outline” of the “15th Five-Year Plan” to increase the participation rate of people with flexible employment, migrant workers, and people with new forms of employment (hereinafter collectively referred to as “flexible workers, etc.”), to encourage relevant personnel to participate in employee health insurance, it was decided to carry out special actions to solidly promote the expansion and quality of medical insurance enrolment.

I. Work goals

On the basis of consolidating the results of flexible workers participating in basic health insurance, it took about 3 years to continuously increase the number of people with flexible workers participating in basic health insurance through policy integration, departmental linkage, optimized services, and technical empowerment, to gradually explore the formation of an insurance enrolment payment model adapted to the characteristics of people with new forms of employment, and the insurance service system for flexible workers continued to improve.

II. Main tasks

(1) Strengthen policy support. Push megacities to lift household registration restrictions on flexible workers enrolling in insurance at their place of employment or place of permanent residence. On the premise of ensuring the balance of fund income and expenditure, the contribution base for flexible workers can be reasonably determined by referring to the basic pension insurance contribution base for local workers. For people with flexible employment to participate in employee health insurance, it is possible to start by establishing a basic medical insurance co-ordinated fund. The payment rate is determined by referring to the contribution level of the local basic medical insurance co-ordinated fund. The health insurance payment period for workers with flexible employment is allowed to be accumulated on a monthly basis, and every 12 months are counted as 1 year. When they reach the legal retirement age and the specified cumulative period of contributions, they can enjoy the benefits of employee health insurance retirees; if the length of contribution is insufficient, they can pay until the specified period of time in accordance with the relevant regulations of the co-ordinating region. Reasonably set a waiting period for flexible workers to participate in employee health insurance benefits. Provinces that are in a position to do so can explore ways to calculate the medical insurance payment period for continuous participating residents and the health insurance payment period for local workers according to local conditions. For individuals participating in employee health insurance, when the basic health insurance relationship is transferred and continued, the payment period is calculated cumulatively. All regions must not bind the benefits of retirees applying for employee health insurance to receiving basic pensions on a monthly basis.

(2) Optimizing insurance enrolment and payment methods. Depending on the actual situation, all regions can implement monthly payments for flexible workers participating in employee health insurance, or explore quarterly, semi-annual, and annual prepayments for flexible workers. Platform enterprises are encouraged to adopt payment methods such as “individual payment+platform subsidy” and social insurance payment according to the unit employee model for workers in the new form of employment that are stable and take orders. It is gradually institutionalized after conditions are ripe. Local authorities are encouraged to include people with flexible employment, etc. in the scope of maternity insurance. They can simultaneously pay to participate in maternity insurance when participating in employee insurance, and enjoy maternity insurance benefits in accordance with regulations. Through various methods, the proportion of people with flexible employment and the like participating in employee health insurance is gradually increased.

(3) Improve service efficiency. Unblock online and offline business processing channels, implement the “One Thing for Flexible Employment Enrollment” integrated service, and integrate matters such as medical insurance registration with social insurance registration to achieve one-time notification, one-form application, one-window acceptance, one-network access, and one-time processing. Make good connections between health insurance relationships for people with flexible employment to ensure a smooth connection of benefits. Encourage all regions to explore and set up medical insurance service sites according to local conditions to provide services such as insurance enrolment consultation and payment guidance. Promote the shared use of personal accounts by families across provinces, support close family members such as spouses, children, parents, etc. to share account funds, and facilitate application scenarios such as medical treatment and drug purchases, and residents' insurance enrolment and payment.

(4) Promote departmental coordination. Continue to improve the “one person, one file” basic medical insurance citizen insurance database construction and application to promote accurate publicity and mobilization. Health insurance departments at all levels actively share data with departments of human resources, social security, commerce, transportation, taxation, postal administration, etc. from time to time to accurately target uninsured persons. Support workers with new forms of employment to participate in trade union organizations, and encourage employees to participate in mutual medical assistance.

(5) Strengthen policy publicity. Actively produce easy-to-understand short videos, case explanations and other materials to promote policies such as insurance payment and guarantee of benefits, and invite insured beneficiaries to share their insurance enrolment stories. Embed insurance reminders and policy promotion functions into the online platform app, carry out “door-to-door policy delivery” activities in scenarios such as skills training and distribution of trade union benefits, and carry out centralized promotion of national insurance enrolment on important holidays. Joint group organizations, industry associations, platform companies, express delivery companies, etc. form publicity teams to carry out publicity activities from time to time in places such as gig markets, important business districts, rider posts, express delivery outlets, etc., to promote direct publicity to groups such as people with flexible employment.

III. Job Requirements

All regions should raise their political standing, adhere to the people-centered approach, strengthen organizational leadership, adhere to local conditions and classify policies, thoroughly implement various initiatives, combine actual research and explore innovative policies and measures within the policy framework stipulated by the country, form specific promotion plans, coordinate organizational implementation, and ensure the steady development of all tasks. Strengthen supervision and guidance, establish a cross-departmental consultation mechanism, and promptly coordinate and resolve issues such as insurance registration, policy coordination, and data sharing. Strengthen job training, enhance the policy implementation and service capabilities of management personnel and platform-related staff, etc., and ensure that various initiatives are implemented and effective. Local health insurance departments promptly report major issues in the implementation of the special operation to the National Health Insurance Administration.

This article was selected from the official website of the “National Health Insurance Administration”. Zhitong Finance Editor: Jiang Yuanhua.