National Medical Insurance Bureau： COVID-19’s vaccine and vaccination costs are borne by the medical insurance fund.

　　CCTV News:On the 20th, the State Council held a briefing on the the State Council policy of the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of the Use of Medical Insurance Funds.

　　At the meeting, Shi Zihai, deputy director of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, said in response to COVID-19’s vaccination and other issues, according to the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the current round of Covid-19’s vaccine and vaccination fee policy has been made clear, mainly with two main points: First, the vaccine and vaccination fee should be borne by the medical insurance fund, and the financial sector should give appropriate subsidies to the medical insurance fund, and individual residents should be vaccinated free of charge. Second, the medical insurance fund is mainly borne by using the balance over the years, which does not affect the income and expenditure of the fund in the current period, that is to say, it will not affect the medical treatment of the people in the current period.

　　Shi Zihai said that this is a special measure to deal with special events, which fully embodies the CPC Central Committee’s concept of upholding people first and life first, fully embodies the superiority of the socialist system, and is conducive to quickly establishing an immune barrier, maintaining normal production and living order, and also helping to protect the fundamental interests of the people to the maximum extent.

　　At present, the National Medical Insurance Bureau has worked with relevant departments to study and formulate a detailed operation plan for the protection of vaccines and vaccination costs after the conditional marketing of vaccines. In the next step, we will guide all localities to seriously organize and implement the good policies of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

　　Regarding the accumulated balance of the medical insurance fund, Shi Zihai said that according to the statistical express, the total income of the fund in 2020 is 2.4 trillion yuan, and the expenditure is about 2.1 trillion yuan. The balance in that year is 270 billion yuan, and the accumulated balance over the years exceeds 3 trillion yuan. At present, the overall operation of the fund is stable, and the balance is generally abundant. The use of the balance will not affect the people’s current medical insurance benefits.

　　Shi Zihai also pointed out that although the current accumulated balance is relatively large, one-third of it is personal accounts, and the overall fund balance is about 2 trillion yuan. Moreover, the regional distribution of the fund balance is very uneven, mainly concentrated in some provinces with population inflows, and the degree of concentration is still increasing. According to statistics, in the six eastern provinces and cities with large population inflows, the accumulated balance of employee medical insurance funds accounted for 44.7% of the country in 2010, and it has risen to 56.6% last year. Especially with the economic growth from high-speed to medium-high-speed, the aging of the population, the change of disease spectrum and the progress of medical technology, the medical expenses are increasing, and the growth rate of fund income is lower than the growth rate of expenditure, which will become the new normal, and there is some pressure on the long-term balance of medical security funds.

　　"In the next step, we will carefully analyze the operation of the medical insurance fund, and actively strengthen the supervision and management of the use of the medical insurance fund with relevant departments to ensure the long-term sustainable and balanced operation of the fund." Shi Zihai emphasized that on the whole, there is no problem for the medical insurance fund to bear the cost of vaccines and vaccination.