Cheng Dan, a farmer from Gushi County in central China's Henan Province, considers her family blessed after her son survived neuroblastoma at the age of five months in 2013.
Cheng's son was treated with 11 rounds of chemotherapy and one operation over two years, costing 250,000 yuan (39,600 U.S. dollars), roughly seven times the poor family's annual income.
Fortunately, nearly 50 percent of Cheng's medical bills were covered by critical illness insurance, which is currently being piloted in more than 100 cities.
The insurance reimburses patients when their medical bills exceed basic medical insurance.
The trials, which have proved very successful in critical illness insurance, will soon be expanded to cover the entire population nationwide, according to the proposal on formulating the country's 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020) unveiled by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on Nov. 3.
The country's nearly 1.4 billion people can expect many more safety nets in next five years as the latest blueprint highlights economic and social development on various fronts.
The CPC's proposal for economic and social development has showcased the country's commitment to fulfilling people's aspiration for a better life and safeguarding human rights and dignity.
RIGHT TO HEALTH
The CPC has vowed to build a "healthy China" with a better health system in the proposed 13th Five-year Plan.
China will also reduce medicine prices, coordinate health insurance with medical care and set up a standardized health and hospital management system for urban and rural areas.
According to the plan, China will implement the critical illness insurance system at "full scale," covering both urban and rural residents in the next five years.
At the end of September 2014, about 650 million of all citizens were covered by critical illness insurance, preventing them from bankruptcy as a result of medical bills.
Liu Huawen, deputy director of the human rights institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, lauds the country's efforts in boosting the human right to health.
