The State Council, China's cabinet, has decided to add allowances to Chinese farmers who join in the rural cooperative medical system and expand the pilot regions adopting the system from 2006, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The rural cooperative medical system is expected to cover all China's rural areas in 2008, Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang was quoted by the paper as saying.

The fund for the rural cooperative medical system is jointly provided by the central government, local governments and farmers themselves. If a farmer suffers from a severe disease, he or she can get allowance from the fund. By the end of June 2005, the medical system was adopted by 641 of some 2,000 Chinese counties.

By the end of September, 5 billion yuan (672 million U.S. dollars) has been distributed to 119 million Chinese farmers who participated in the rural cooperative medical systems.

It is difficult and expensive for Chinese people, farmers in particular to seek medical consulting.

Some 79 percent of Chinese farmers have no medical welfare in any form and have to pay medical fees all by themselves, Gao said.

In addition, 80 percent of China's public health resources were in cities and large hospitals, and rural areas lacked medical resources, Gao said.

Currently, only 1.6 percent medical staff working in rural hospitals have bachelor's degree and 21.6 percent have not received formal medical education, the paper said.

Source: Xinhua