Red Cross pushes child health care plan in Shanghai

As the Red Cross Society of China celebrates its 110th anniversary, officials from the charity's Shanghai branch yesterday issued a reminder to foreign parents living in the city of its children's health insurance program.

Established in 1996, the scheme is the country's only mutual fund dedicated to children's health care. This year it will provide medical cover for more than 2.1 million youngsters in Shanghai, a third of them migrant Chinese and more than 10,000 the offspring of overseas parents.

Ma Qiang, deputy director of Shanghai Red Cross, said that although the scheme has been around for 18 years, many expats are still unaware of it.

For 80 yuan (US$13) a year, children aged from 1 month to 18 years can get up to 300,000 yuan worth of cover, Ma said.

The scheme — which runs from September 1 to August 31 each year — is open to all children, who can enrol on an individual basis or through their schools, he said.

"This year we're encouraging lots more international schools to take part in the scheme so we can benefit even more expat children," Ma said.

Since inception, the fund has paid out more than 1.4 billion yuan to sick children across Shanghai, the charity said.