China: Beijing’s new birth policy adds fertility services to insurance coverage

Chinese capital Beijing will have around 16 fertility services in a government-backed medical insurance scheme to help those who wish to have a baby.

The move comes in response to the country reporting its birth rate at a record low in 2021, pushing lawmakers to allow couples to have up to three children – as opposed to the single-child policy in effect till 2016.

According to state media cited by news agency Reuters, the services using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) will be covered by the insurance scheme from March 26 onwards. This will be done with the aim to “take proactive fertility support measures,” reported Beijing Daily. 

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Among other provisions, this will help reduce expenditure for couples belonging to lower-income brackets who lack access to private healthcare. 

China’s birth rate dropped to a record low of 7.52 per 1,000 people in 2021 – lowest since 1949 when the National Bureau of Statistics began collating the data. There were 10.62 million births in 2021, the data showed, compared with 12 million in 2020, according to a report in Al Jazeera.

Premier Li Kequiang had said in March last year that the country will work towards attaining an “appropriate birth rate” as it faces a “demographic time bomb” (elderly population increasing while workforce gets smaller). 

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He had also said that China will raise the statutory retirement age “in a phased manner”, reported Reuters. 

The country had scrapped its one-child policy after almost four decades in 2016. Following the release of the official data in 2021, Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, had told South China Morning Post, “The most shocking part of the data released today is that the natural growth of the population has dropped to 0.34 per thousand, the first time below 1.0 since data became available.”

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“The demographic challenge is well known, but the speed of population ageing is clearly faster than expected. This suggests China’s total population may have reached its peak in 2020. It also indicates China’s potential growth is likely slowing faster than expected,” he had said.

He added that the three-child policy is expected to gradually add births, while the national life expectancy is gradually increasing, reported PTI.