Lately, the State Council has issued the 13th Five-Year Plan for Healthcare (the "Plan").
The Plan sets out that by 2020, a basic medical and healthcare system covering urban and rural residents will be initially established so that everyone has access to the basic medical and health services; and the average life expectancy will be over 77.3 years old, one year longer than that in 2015. Accordingly, the Plan ascertains 10 major tasks, such as "redoubling efforts to prevent and treat critical diseases" and "improving policies on family planning", and enumerates 34 items and five major projects in the form of special column. In particular, the Plan sets forth that efforts will be made to vigorously develop medical institutions run by social organizations, loosen requirements on the range of services provided by those medical institutions financed by social organizations, support social organizations to get engaged in healthcare services in various forms, and encourage public health institutions and social organizations to jointly build up new non-profit medical institutions. Additionally, the Plan makes it clear that efforts will be made to speed up the development of commercial health insurance, encourage insurance institutions to actively develop health insurance products related to health management services, and strengthen the evaluation of and intervention in health risks.