Overview
- The National Healthcare Security Administration outlined the goal at a Beijing healthcare security conference, in a work report delivered by director Zhang Ke.
- Coverage would extend to prenatal checkups, delivery and specified labour analgesia items, with officials using language such as “strive to achieve” no out-of-pocket payments.
- Authorities say the expansion will run through the national healthcare insurance programme, with nationwide implementation targeted for 2026 and further details still to be set.
- China’s population began contracting in 2022 and kept shrinking through 2024, with demographers warning of a smaller workforce and heavier eldercare burdens.
- Several provinces, including Jilin, Jiangsu and Shandong, have piloted near-free childbirth policies, alongside earlier national steps like longer maternity leave, tax and housing incentives, childcare subsidies and plans for free preschool.