The State Council, China's Cabinet, recently issued an outline of the country's 2030 health plan.

There are 12 major indexes for health in the plan: five health level indexes, one healthy life index, three health service and health security indexes, two health environment indexes and one health industry index. The outline also indicates that China's major health indexes should be similar to those in high income countries.

It also stipulates a number of specific goals to be reached by 2030, such as increasing Chinese citizens' life expectancy to 79 years, 3 years more than at present; reducing the infant mortality rate from the current 8.1 per 1,000 to 5 per 1,000 and the mortality rate of children below 5 years old from 10.7 per 1,000 to 6 per 1,000; and reducing the mortality rate of pregnant and lying-in women from 20.1 out of 100,000 at present to 12 out of 100,000 by 2030.

And there should be three registered doctors and 4.7 registered nurses for every 1,000 permanent residents, according to the outline.

The plan also aims to further ease people's financial burden when paying for health and medical treatment. Currently 29.3 percent of the citizens' overall health expenditure is paid by individuals, the plan advances reducing the percentage to 25 percent by 2030.

Tobacco control is also a main goal. According to the outline, by 2030 the smoking rate of Chinese citizens above 15 years old should be reduced to 20 percent.