Seven departments including the National Medical Insurance Administration yesterday issued the "Notice on Carrying out Special Actions to Improve the Quality of Basic Medical Insurance for Flexible Employment Personnel, Migrant Workers, and People with New Employment Forms." This is the first time at the national level that a special action has been deployed for the insurance participation of flexible employment and other groups. At present, the scale of my country's flexible employment personnel participating in employee medical insurance continues to grow. In the future, how to make insurance participation and use convenient for people with flexible employment?
Flexible employment insurance
There are new payment options
Liu Junjie is a new food delivery rider in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. After joining the industry, he learned that he could also participate in the basic employee medical insurance, so he signed up for it as soon as possible. According to the policy, he can enjoy a certain amount of subsidies after joining the insurance, which greatly reduces his personal payment burden.
Data from the National Medical Insurance Administration shows that the number of people participating in employee medical insurance for flexible employment and other services last year reached 69.8218 million, an increase of 5.54% from 2024. At present, most megacities across the country have relaxed household registration restrictions for flexible employment personnel, making related services more convenient. 337 coordinating areas have opened the inter-provincial mutual aid function of personal accounts.
This special action focuses on the difficult issues faced by flexible employment personnel, migrant workers, and people with new employment forms in participating in basic medical insurance, and takes measures to explore and form an insurance payment model that adapts to the characteristics of people with new employment forms, and clarify the reasonable determination of the payment base for flexible employment personnel.
The medical insurance payment period for employees such as those with flexible employment is allowed to be accumulated on a monthly basis, and every 12 months is counted as one year; a waiting period for employees with medical insurance benefits for those with flexible employment should be reasonably set.
Zhao Ying, an associate researcher at the Medical Security and Nursing Security Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, said that people in the new employment situation generally have unstable incomes and large fluctuations in payment ability. In the past, due to restrictions on insured household registration, relatively rigid employee medical insurance payment methods, and high payment bases, some practitioners could only work in the city of employment and return to their place of residence to participate in resident medical insurance.
This separation between the place of employment and the place of insurance not only results in inconvenience in reimbursement for medical treatment in other places and higher cost of benefits, but also inhibits their willingness to participate in employee medical insurance to a certain extent.
Zhao Ying, associate researcher at the Medical Security and Nursing Security Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences: This time the policy is mainly to lower the threshold and enhance the flexibility of the payment mechanism. The cycle can be more flexible, and payments can be made monthly, quarterly or throughout the year. Regarding the payment base, it is mentioned that under the condition of ensuring the balance of income and expenditure of this fund, it can be reasonably determined by referring to the base of local employee pension insurance. People with flexible employment can also participate in employee medical insurance through individual construction and overall planning to reduce the payment burden. This can guide them to participate in employee medical insurance.
Jiangsu has established a universal insurance database
Realizing “data goes with everyone”
At the same time, platform companies are encouraged to adopt payment methods such as "individual payment + platform subsidy" for employees in new employment forms who receive stable orders to participate in employee medical insurance, and pay social insurance according to the unit employee model. This will be gradually institutionalized when conditions are mature. Ge Huimin, director of the Medical Management and Benefit Security Department of the Hefei Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau, revealed that they have previously provided subsidies to platform companies and encouraged companies to actively participate in insurance for platform contract employees. At present, the number of people participating in flexible employment insurance in Hefei has reached 238,100, with an annual growth rate of more than 23%.
Jiangsu and other places also continue to explore the inclusion of new employment groups in the medical insurance system. Zhao Peng, director of the Jiangsu Provincial Medical Insurance Fund Management Center, revealed that Jiangsu has now built a "one person, one file" universal insurance database, which archives the information of people with registered residences in various places who have had their insurance interrupted, suspended, or missed insurance, and realized that the data can be taken with each person. By reducing rates and providing subsidies, all the insurance should be covered.
Combined with actual situation
Research innovative policy measures
In addition, the National Medical Insurance Administration has further clarified that localities are encouraged to include flexible employment personnel into the coverage of maternity insurance. They can pay for maternity insurance when participating in employee medical insurance and enjoy maternity insurance benefits in accordance with regulations.
In terms of use, it promotes the joint use of personal accounts across provinces and families, supports spouses, children, parents and other close relatives to share account funds, and facilitates application scenarios such as medical treatment and drug purchase, and residents' insurance payment. Zhao Ying believes that personal accounts can be used jointly by families, and insurance is no longer just an individual benefit, but can be adjusted and used within the family, which objectively helps to enhance the attractiveness of employee medical insurance. In the future, policy integration should continue to be strengthened and multi-department coordination should be promoted.
Zhao Ying: By participating in employee medical insurance and maternity insurance at the same time, the benefits and security of these flexible employees will be substantially improved. Expanding the mutual aid use of personal accounts, flexible employment personnel participating in employee medical insurance and their family members can also use it to pay for resident medical insurance. In the future, it may be necessary to strengthen policy integration and integrate policy tools from various departments, such as conducting multi-department consultations on the rules and standards for confirming the payment base. Including some policy support in the incentive and restraint mechanism for platform companies that are better insured to form a synergy of policies.
The National Medical Insurance Administration has made it clear that all localities must explore innovative policy measures based on actual research and formulate specific promotion plans within the policy framework prescribed by the state.
Tian Xue, the head of a domestic instant delivery platform company, revealed that they will continue to explore and optimize the guarantee mechanism.
Tian Xue: We will closely cooperate with the guidance requirements of policies such as special actions to improve quality, continue to optimize the social security mechanism for riders, open up the "last mile" of policy implementation, and weave a dense social security safety net for workers in new employment forms.
Producer | Chen Bingke
Reporters｜Du Ximeng Yu Changbo
Voice of China, China Central Radio and Television
