Vaccination in COVID-19, China is based on the principle of individual voluntary vaccination and national free vaccination. As of April 1 1, COVID-19 vaccine 167343000 doses have been reported in various places. According to the introduction of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, by the end of March, more than 24 billion yuan had been paid in advance to vaccine manufacturers through vaccine procurement agencies, realizing "money and other vaccines".
Prepaid funds to ensure free vaccination
Xiong Xianjun, Director of the Department of Medical Service Management of the National Health Insurance Bureau: This is a requirement put forward by the State Council of the CPC Central Committee according to the principle of coordinating epidemic prevention and control with social and economic development. Then, according to this requirement, COVID-19's vaccines (and vaccination costs) are mainly paid by the medical insurance fund, with appropriate financial subsidies. The payment of this medical insurance fund mainly lies in the balance of the overall fund. We require local financial departments and medical insurance departments to set up vaccination special fund accounts under special financial accounts, which are accounted for separately.
In order to ensure that vaccination is not affected by the cost, local medical insurance departments timely allocate funds to vaccine procurement agencies, generally local disease control departments, and then allocate funds to vaccine production enterprises in advance through procurement agencies in the form of advance payment to ensure the production and operation of enterprises.
Xiong Xianjun, Director of the Medical Service Management Department of the National Health Insurance Bureau: By the end of March, we had paid more than 24 billion yuan to the inoculation institutions, so it was a situation of "money waiting for seedlings".
Free vaccination for all is a "big account" for economic and social development.
COVID-19 vaccine produced in China involves five enterprises, each with different technology, cost and scale. Regarding the purchase price of vaccines in COVID-19, the National Medical Insurance Bureau adopts the way that each enterprise negotiates the purchase price of each vaccine separately, which not only ensures the production efficiency of the production enterprises, but also ensures the sustainability and fairness of the payment ability of the medical insurance fund.
The cost of free vaccination for all people in COVID-19 is paid by the medical insurance fund and the financial balance. However, the balance of medical insurance funds in various provinces is also unbalanced, and local finance should increase subsidies to areas with less medical insurance fund balances.
Xiong Xianjun, Director of the Medical Service Management Department of the National Health Insurance Bureau: For this place with a relatively large balance, it is mainly borne by this medical insurance fund, and then appropriate financial subsidies are added. The medical insurance fund can be allocated as much as it can, mainly through financial subsidies. Therefore, according to different regions, where the balance of the overall fund is relatively low, the proportion of financial subsidies will increase.
According to the introduction of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, free vaccination in COVID-19 is an important decision made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council from the perspective of respecting science and coordinating the overall economic and social situation. In the short term, the balance between medical insurance fund and local finance is under pressure, but in the long term, the state has calculated a "big account", which is very important for the future sustainable development of medical insurance fund.
Xiong Xianjun, Director of the Medical Service Management Department of the National Health Insurance Bureau: If we can establish this immune barrier soon, then our whole society and economy will soon enter a normal state and enter a normal development. In fact, our medical insurance fund, the first is the unit payment, the second is the people's payment, and the third is the government's financial supplement. But in any case, it all depends on economic development. When the economy develops well and these problems are solved, the income of our medical insurance fund will continue to grow. So in the long run, this is conducive to the sustainable development of the medical security system. We consider it from the perspective of this "big account", so we decided to use the surplus funds of medical insurance to pay for the vaccine this time.