BEIJING - After taking blood tests, a flock of residents were standing before a bulletin board of the local clinic, reading a list of medical expenses covered by the country's new rural cooperative medical system in Liantang village of Xing'an county, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

"In the past, I had to see village doctors and pay all the medical fees if I got ill. But now both the county and the village have new clinics with expenses partially covered by the government. It's a good thing indeed," said a 68-year-old villager named Ouyang Qiurong.

Medical care improvements like in Liantang can also be seen in other ?rural areas, thanks to the country's continuous efforts to improve its basic medical care system.

The system has so far covered 1.26 billion residents, or 90 percent of the total population as the country works to develop rural medical services, establish a basic medicine system and run trials for the public hospital reform to provide more convenient and affordable medical services.

Largest-ever social welfare

In 2005, China's basic medical care system for urban residents and the new rural cooperative medical care system covered about only 300 million people, leaving a large number of rural populations untended, which became a primary concern for the country.

To provide more effective, convenient and affordable medical services, the government decided to deepen the medical care system reform in 2009.

Now, the basic medical care system benefits 430 million urban residents, and the new rural cooperative medical care system covers 830 million rural residents.

"The country has established a basic medical care system that nearly covers the whole nation in only five years. It took Germany a hundred years and the Republic of Korea 12 years to achieve the goal. China has created a record," said Yao Lan, professor with the School of Medicine under the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Huge investments boost confidence

Li Xiaofeng, a patient taking hemodialysis in Boai Hospital in Changchun, the capital of China's Northeast Jilin province, has been ill for the past three years. Medical treatments almost cost every penny she had.

"I wanted to commit suicide several times. But I feel hopeful now," she said. From February 2011, Changchun launched a medical care system reform, which enabled her to take hemodialysis for 400 yuan ($61.64) a year.

"Lack of government investments has long been the major cause for the country's poor medical care system. The latest reform has changed the situation," said Xu Guangjian, deputy dean of the School of Public Administration under the Renmin University of China, adding that the government has been more aware of funding public service over recent years.

According to Vice Minister of Finance Wang Jun, the country invested 1.13 trillion yuan in improving the medical care system during 2009-2011, 284.2 billion yuan more than the original budget. It also raised the ratio of the medical care spending in fiscal expenditure to 5.35 percent in 2011, up from 4.57 percent in 2008.

Also, rural health services were improved over the past years as the government allocated 40 billion yuan to support the construction of 1,877 county-level hospitals, 7,000 grassroots medical care institutions and 11,000 village clinics.

Higher goal

Despite the fast development, the country still has a long way to go to establish a high-standard medical care system, according to Yao.

"Currently, there is still a big gap between the rural and urban medical care systems. Even the urban system needs improvements such as raising reimbursement ratio, covering more drug expenditures and providing more medical services," he said.

In the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period, China will work to reduce individual's shares of total medical expenditures to less than 30 percent.

Also, the maximum reimbursement for urban residents will reach six times of their annual disposable incomes in 2011, and no lower than 50,000 yuan, while annual medical treatment allowances for both urban and rural residents will rise to 200 yuan per capita from the current 120 yuan.

Further, the government will continue to push forward the reform of public hospitals in the interest of public benefits while focusing on separating medical treatment services and medicine sales, which is believed as the primary cause for high costs in public hospitals.

In addition to a basic medical care system, the country also aims to build a basic health care system that will cover both the urban and rural residents and cater to different demands by 2020.