Society

27m yuan in rural medical care fund misused

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-16 15:39

BEIJING - China's National Audit Office (NAO) said Wednesday that 27 million yuan ($4.1 million) of new rural cooperative medical care fund had been misappropriated.

An NAO audit revealed that local governments had wrongly allocated millions of yuan to old-age pensions, the office said in a statement on its website.

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The audit, covering 45 counties and districts covered by the medical care scheme, found cases of misappropriation in five counties, including Anhui's Quanjiao county, Sichuan's Yuechi county, and Liaoning's Dawa county, Xifeng county and Fengcheng city.

The audit mainly looked at money-raising and spending, as well as management of the new rural cooperative medical care fund from January 2009 to May 2010, it said.

In 2010, the rural cooperative medical care scheme covered 24.55 million farmers in the 45 counties and districts, or 95.24 percent of the total.

China launched in 2003 the new rural cooperative medical care program, in which a member pays 10 yuan a year and gets partial reimbursement at varied rates for hospital expenses.

The state, provincial, municipal and county governments jointly contribute 40 yuan per capita for the cooperative fund. Since 2010, the government has jointly contributed 150 yuan per member.