It’s about you and me Five major changes will take place in social security this year.

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 6th Question: It’s about you and me! Five major changes will take place in social security this year.

Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Jiang Lin and Peng Yunjia

Pensions for retired employees will usher in "18 consecutive rises", and reimbursement for medical treatment in other places will be more convenient, and pilot projects for occupational injury protection for flexible employees such as take-away riders will be carried out …

Social security concerns thousands of families. This year, our social security will usher in many new changes.

Change 1: How much does the retirement pension increase? Have the answer before the end of June.

This year’s government work report proposes to appropriately raise the basic pension standards for retirees and urban and rural residents to ensure timely and full payment. This means that the pensions of retired employees will usher in "18 consecutive rises" and the pensions of urban and rural residents will also be improved.

In terms of employee pension insurance, the pension benefits were raised in 2021, which benefited 127 million retirees. How will it rise in 2022? How much is it going up? The "Opinions on Implementing the Division of Key Work in the Government Work Report" recently issued by the State Council requires that the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance take the lead and issue relevant policies before the end of June.

"Insist on improving people’s livelihood in development, not only do your best, but also do what you can." Zheng Gongcheng, president of China Social Security Society, said that in 2022, China will also promote the national overall planning of old-age insurance, and the funds will help each other across the country, so that the pension payment in difficult areas will be more secure.

In terms of endowment insurance for urban and rural residents, in the past year, 17 provinces and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps raised the basic pension for urban and rural residents, benefiting more than 78 million elderly people, most of whom were rural residents.

This year, in addition to raising the national basic pension standard determined by the central government, up to now, seven provinces including Fujian, Jiangsu, Hainan, Xizang, Ningxia, Guizhou and Shanxi have announced the provincial-level basic pension raising plan for urban and rural residential insurance. Sichuan and other provinces have also made it clear that it will be raised during the year.

Change 2: How to promote the direct settlement of cross-provincial medical treatment? Announced before the end of June

According to the requirements, improve the direct settlement method for medical treatment across provinces and different places, and introduce relevant policies before the end of June. It will undoubtedly be the direction of policy to make it easier for people to go through the reimbursement procedures for medical treatment in different places.

At present, the inter-provincial direct settlement of hospitalization expenses has covered all provinces, all overall planning areas, all kinds of insured persons and main out-going personnel.

The coverage of inter-provincial direct settlement of outpatient expenses has been further expanded. There are 826 designated medical institutions in 63 co-ordination areas across the country, and pilot projects have been launched to directly settle the treatment expenses related to five outpatient chronic and special diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, radiotherapy and chemotherapy for malignant tumors, uremia dialysis and anti-rejection treatment after organ transplantation.

By the end of February this year, 49,200 designated medical institutions and 89,800 designated retail pharmacies had been directly settled across provinces.

According to Long Xuewen, the person in charge of the Medical Insurance Management Center of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, the pilot areas will be guided to speed up the transformation of information systems, expand the pilot scope of cross-provincial direct settlement of outpatient chronic and special diseases, and promote the online and offline settlement of hospitalization and outpatient expenses by classification.

Previously, the State Council requested that there should be at least one designated medical institution in each county before the end of 2022, which can provide inter-provincial direct settlement services for medical expenses, including outpatient expenses.

Change 3: How to invest personal pension? Clear before the end of April

Developing a multi-level and multi-pillar endowment insurance system is an important measure to actively cope with the aging population and realize the sustainable development of the endowment insurance system.

In China, the basic old-age insurance system as the first pillar is basically sound; As the second pillar, the enterprise annuity and occupational annuity systems have been initially established and gradually improved; However, the development of the third pillar is not standardized, especially the individual pension system has not yet been introduced, which makes residents lack the pension investment channels to obtain more stable and greater benefits.

According to the deployment, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Finance and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will take the lead in the work of "continuing to standardize the development of the third pillar endowment insurance", and relevant policies will be issued before the end of April.

According to the reporter’s understanding, the top-level design has been made clear at present, and the third pillar includes two parts: personal savings endowment insurance and commercial endowment insurance, all of which are voluntarily participated by individuals. Among them, the design of tax policy and preferential strength are the key factors.

The Opinions on Promoting the Development of Personal Pension was reviewed and approved by the Central Committee for Deep Reform in December 2021. "After the document is issued, our department will work with relevant departments to formulate supporting policies to promote the implementation of the system and provide a better institutional guarantee for the people’s pension." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said.

According to industry insiders, there are two main tasks. First, establish a personal pension system supported by taxation and other policies, and plan to adopt a personal account system to provide more institutional options for workers participating in basic old-age insurance to accumulate personal pensions. The second is to standardize the development of personal commercial pension financial products and operate and supervise them in accordance with market rules. The two support each other and jointly promote the development of the third pillar.

Change 4: When will the scope of national medical insurance drugs be unified? Completed before the end of December.

Led by the National Medical Insurance Bureau, the related work of basically unifying the scope of medical insurance drugs in China will be completed by the end of December. This indicates that the national basic unified medical insurance drug list is coming soon, and the chemical drugs and proprietary Chinese medicines included in the basic medical insurance payment scope will be basically the same.

According to the opinion of deepening the reform of the medical security system, it is required to "reasonably divide the responsibilities and authority of the central and local catalogues, and each region shall not make its own catalogue or adjust the limited payment scope of medical insurance drugs".

Previously, the National Medical Insurance Bureau has issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Medication for Basic Medical Insurance, continuously promoting the digestion of supplementary drugs at the provincial level, and laying a good foundation for unifying the scope of medication for basic medical insurance in the country and standardizing the medical insurance payment policy.

The reporter learned from relevant departments that on the basis of unification, the state will further establish and improve the regulation and index system of medical insurance drug list, and timely include drugs with high clinical value, obvious benefits for patients and excellent economic evaluation into the scope of medical insurance payment according to procedures, so as to provide more new drugs and good drugs for the people.

Since the establishment of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, the national medical insurance drug list has been adjusted for four consecutive years. A total of 507 drugs have been added to the national medical insurance payment scope, and a number of "magic drugs" and "zombie drugs" have been transferred out of the list. More than 40 kinds of drugs for rare diseases listed in China have been included in the national medical insurance drug list.

Change 5: How to protect occupational injury protection? Continue to advance during the year.

Occupational injury protection is a "new type of industrial injury insurance" created for take-away riders and network car drivers. The Opinions on Implementing the Division of Key Work in the Government Work Report proposes to strengthen flexible employment services, improve the social security policy for flexible employment, and carry out the pilot project of occupational injury protection for new employment forms, which will be continuously promoted during the year.

Due to the lack of stable labor relations, it is often difficult for new employment forms to obtain work-related injury insurance protection. However, with the promotion of relevant policies, the new employment forms of employees in pilot cities and related platforms this year will fill the shortcomings of occupational injury protection.

Wang Xing, CEO of Meituan, said recently that Meituan will actively participate in the pilot project of occupational injury protection under the guidance of policies, ensure that the pilot project is carried out according to the planned schedule, and will pay all the expenses of participating riders.

"At present, Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan and other provinces have begun to carry out pilot preparations for occupational injury protection in the travel, take-away, instant delivery and freight transportation industries in the same city." Zhang Chenggang, director of the New Employment Form Research Center in China, capital university of economics and business, said that with the establishment of a national unified information platform, the pilot project of occupational injury protection will officially land, and explore experience and accumulate data for later promotion throughout the country.

What situations can occupational injury protection cover? How about compensation? According to industry insiders, occupational injury protection is paid by platform enterprises, and employees do not pay. The scope and situation of its protection and the standard and level of treatment are consistent with the industrial injury insurance as a whole.