Costs are not fully reimbursed, and access to needed medicine is limited, sources say.<\/p>\n
2015-12-15<\/p>\n
A health insurance scheme set up to benefit rural residents of northwestern China\u2019s Xinjiang region has left those it was intended to help barely covered, with many now facing large out-of-pocket costs for limited medical care, sources say.<\/p>\n
Claims are never fully paid under the government-sponsored plan, under which applicants seek reimbursement by using a \u201ccooperative medical treatment card,\u201d a farmer in Tokkuztara county in the Ili (in Chinese, Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do a lot of \u2018reviews\u2019 before they reimburse our medical bills,\u201d the farmer, a young woman named Shehide, said. \u201cIt often seems that local officials are eating the benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Shehide\u2019s mother, a heart patient, was sent home from a hospital when the costs of her care began to rise, her family found themselves forced to buy medicine outside the hospital, which did not have what they needed on hand, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so we ended up paying more, even though a small amount was finally reimbursed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, the card is useless,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Limited options<\/strong><\/p>\n Also speaking to RFA, the owners of two private pharmacies in Xinjiang\u2019s Aksu (Akesu) prefecture confirmed the government-sponsored plan would not reimburse for medicines purchased at their stores.<\/p>\n \u201cThey cannot buy medicine here with the cooperative medical treatment card,\u201d one owner said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone presents a government worker\u2019s card, we can sell them the medicine they need, but the cooperative medical treatment card cannot be used at this store at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe can only use government worker\u2019s cards here,\u201d another pharmacist said. \u201cFarmers can use their cards only at the hospital pharmacies.\u201d<\/p>\n Rates of repayment for medical care also vary from place to place, one Uyghur farmer said, adding that the card itself costs 100 yuan (U.S.$15 approx.) per year to use.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if I have five people in my family, I must pay 500 yuan (U.S.$77 approx.) each year just to have the card,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we get treatment in a township hospital, we are reimbursed for 80 percent of our costs. At the county level, we get less than that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if we are treated in [the regional capital] Urumqi, we get back only 40 to 45 percent,\u201d said the man, whose son is being treated in a hospital in the capital.<\/p>\n \u201cI have paid 30 thousand yuan (U.S.$4,638 approx.) out of my own pocket so far, and have not had any reimbursement yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Inadequate coverage<\/strong><\/p>\n No repayments will be made on bill amounts above 15 thousand yuan (U.S.$2,319 approx.), though, an official in Aksu\u2019s medical treatment card management office said.<\/p>\n \u201cPatients must first seek treatment, then we will reimburse,\u201d the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n \u201cFormerly, the government would cover 85 percent of their bill, but since July we have reimbursed at only 75 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe total bill should never exceed 15 thousand yuan, though,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This amount allowed under the plan is inadequate to cover patients\u2019 needs, said Juret Obul, a Uyghur doctor now practicing in Fairfax, Virginia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cooperative medical treatment card sounds like a good thing, but the amount allowed is really nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis card really doesn\u2019t help the farmers at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Reported by Kurban Niyaz for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juman. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Costs are not fully reimbursed, and access to needed medicine is limited, sources say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}