China has announced plans to fully cover childbirth-related costs for families as authorities move to incentivise young couples to have more children.
The administration said it would "improve the level of medical expense coverage for prenatal examinations, striving to achieve 'no out-of-pocket expenses' for childbirth," in a report released on Saturday.
It comes as policy makers intensify efforts to halt a deepening fertility slump that is gradually evolving into a long-term economic risk.
The new plan set to come in to effect from 2026, will ensure that new parents face little to no out-of-pocket expenses for giving birth, marking one of the most ambitious social support measures China has considered in decades.
Under the emerging framework, childbirth services including prenatal check-ups, hospital delivery, postnatal care and essential medical treatments, would be fully reimbursed through public health insurance and fiscal support.
The goal, according to policy discussions and pilot programs in several regions, is to remove financial barriers that discourage couples from having children, particularly in urban areas where medical and living costs are high.
China’s fertility rate has continued to fall despite and reached historic lows despite the formal end of all birth restrictions in 2021.
For many young couples, the cost of childbirth, childcare, education and housing has outweighed policy incentives, leading to delayed marriage, fewer births, or opting out of parenthood altogether.
Economists warn that the demographic downturn poses serious challenges to China’s growth model.
A shrinking workforce, an ageing population and rising dependency ratios are already putting pressure on productivity, pensions and public finances.
Authorities now increasingly frame fertility support not only as a social issue, but as a core economic and national development concern.
The legacy of the one-child policy continues to shape today’s demographic reality.
Enforced for more than three decades, the policy successfully slowed population growth but also entrenched small-family norms, skewed age structures and reduced the number of women of childbearing age.
Reversing those effects has proven far more difficult than lifting restrictions alone.
Authorities previously tried to encourage couples to have babies by expanding maternity leave, financial and tax benefits, and housing subsidies.
If rolled out nationwide, full childbirth cost coverage would represent a significant expansion of China’s welfare system and a clear departure from past population control approaches.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow ear...
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for greater economic cooperation among Muslim countries, saying their combined economic weight remai...
Indonesia deployed thousands of security personnel around parliament and other major cities on Thursday as students returned to the streets, one ye...
Rescuers in Nepal used helicopters on Thursday to scour for hundreds still missing after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a river on the Himalayan border with China's Tibet, sending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys, killing 162 people.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told allied foreign ministers Washington will focus on sanctions and other pressure on Iran “for the time being”, Axios reports. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman have resumed talks on a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for greater economic cooperation among Muslim countries, saying their combined economic weight remains disproportionately small compared with their population, strategic location and resources.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 10 prisoners of war each in Belarus, Moscow's Human Rights Commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has said.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow earlier this week to warn Russia against attacking NATO, dismissing them as "scare stories," which had nothing to do with reality.
Australia has confirmed its first case of H5N1 bird flu in a mammal after the virus was detected in a dead long-nosed fur seal in South Australia, authorities said.
Malaysia is facing a sharp rise in dengue infections, with the capital Kuala Lumpur and the wider Klang Valley emerging as the main centres of concern.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak has surpassed 5,000 confirmed cases, with the death toll reaching 2,378, according to the latest government data.
The Democratic Republic of Congo says the number of confirmed Ebola cases has risen to more than 5,000, with more than 2,300 deaths. Delayed detection, weak surveillance, funding shortages and conflict have allowed the virus to spread faster than in any previous epidemic at the same stage.
Australia warned on Monday (3 August) of a wider spread of H5N1 bird flu after its first confirmed mass mortality event among seabirds killed about 50 greater crested terns off the coast of South Australia, south of Adelaide.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment