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data from the national healthcare security administration shows that in 2023, there were 249 million people nationwide participating in maternity insurance, the expenditure of maternity insurance funds was 117.7 billion yuan, and the average maternity allowance per insured female employee who gave birth was 26,000 yuan.

on september 10, zhang ke, director of the national healthcare security administration, stated at a press conference held by the state council information office that maternity allowance is generally referred to as maternity leave pay, which is paid by medical insurance (maternity insurance), not by the man’s or the woman’s unit.

he explained that the national health insurance administration now has two ways of paying maternity leave wages, that is, paying childbirth benefits. one is to give it directly to the female employee who gives birth, and the other is to give it to the unit where the female employee works, which then pays it to the employee herself.

"recently, we have also communicated with the all-china women's federation and solicited their opinions. the next step will be to promote the exploration of paying maternity benefits (maternity leave wages) more directly to female employees themselves." zhang ke emphasized that some regions have local regulations that clearly require payment to enterprises, which will then be paid to individual employees. the national health insurance administration will also encourage relevant localities to conduct prudent research.

in addition, the national medical insurance administration has guided provinces to comprehensively consider factors such as the affordability of medical insurance funds and the standardization of assisted reproductive technology, and gradually include appropriate assisted reproductive technology projects in the scope of medical insurance fund payment according to procedures, helping to resolve the problem of families who want to have children but cannot or dare not have children. at present, 20 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, and autonomous regions including beijing, guangxi, and gansu, as well as the xinjiang production and construction corps, have included assisted reproductive medical service projects in medical insurance reimbursement, and it is expected that by the end of this year, more provinces will include them in medical insurance reimbursement.

"considering that childbirth may be the greatest pain a woman will experience in her life, we have added projects related to optimizing childbirth services, such as 'labor analgesia', 'doula delivery', and 'family companionship', to meet the diverse needs of mothers and improve the childbirth experience." zhang ke said that the national healthcare security administration has also continued to provide good maternity insurance agency services, requiring all localities to implement the requirements of "minimum application materials, simplest procedures, shortest processing time, and optimal service quality", streamline the process, and clearly require that those who enjoy maternity insurance benefits no longer need to provide birth permits, birth service certificates, marriage certificates, and other non-essential additional materials, to facilitate the insured persons' enjoyment of benefits.

yan qinghui, deputy director of the national healthcare security administration, mentioned that newborns can directly claim medical expenses after being discharged from the hospital.

"in the past, newborns had to be settled first before they could go through the insurance procedures, and they could only pay the medical expenses in advance. after settling down and participating in the insurance, they could go to the medical insurance window for reimbursement." yan qinghui introduced that now, medical insurance departments in various places have achieved data sharing, so that newborns can participate in insurance online with their birth medical certificates. the average time for participation and payment has been reduced from 28.7 working days at the beginning of the year to 6.4 working days.

reporters learned from the press conference that the national medical insurance administration will continue to guide local governments to do a good job in maternity insurance and basic medical insurance, continue to improve the maternity insurance system, enhance the protection function of the system, promote the expansion of maternity insurance coverage, and steadily improve the level of maternity medical expenses protection for insured persons. at the same time, it will strengthen departmental coordination, promote the establishment of a policy system to support fertility, and jointly promote the long-term balanced development of the population.

poster news reporter jiang xueying reports from beijing