Hong Kong
CNN
—
China is planning to offer free fertility treatment to citizens under a national insurance scheme to reverse the plummeting birth rate.
National Health Security Administration speak on Friday, it will expand coverage to help shoulder the cost for families trying to conceive.
It says The new coverage will cover assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques and also include labor pain relievers to relieve pain during childbirth. The most commonly performed ART procedure is in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The authorities describe China’s declining population as one of the biggest obstacles to national development and emphasize that it has added ovulation-inducing drugs to its coverage, to help ” reduce the burden of infertility”.
The expanded coverage is part of a larger effort by the Chinese government to convince more people to marry and have more children.
The country’s birth rate has been falling for years and last year it recorded First population decline in more than 60 years.
The country’s population will drop to 1.411 billion by 2022, down 850,000 from the previous year, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
At the same time, the birth rate fell to a record low of 6.77 births per 1,000 people. About 9.56 million babies will be born in 2022, compared with 10.62 million in 2021.
According to Chen Wei, a professor at Renmin University of China, more and more women in China are delaying marriage and choosing not to have children, often citing financial difficulties and the need to prioritize their careers. Options include expensive procedures like IVF, says Chen, which can help relieve some of this pressure. Medium related costs with IVF in cities like Shanghai is between $4,500 and $5,000.
China has 539 ART-approved medical facilities and 27 sperm banks as of June 2021, and each year these facilities facilitate more than a million IVF cycles, according to experts from National Clinical Research Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Policymakers are increasingly concerned about the impact of China’s growing demographic crisis on economic growth.
China introduced its controversial “one-child” policy decades ago in an attempt to address concerns about overpopulation and alleviate poverty, but decided to scrap it in 2015. amid concerns that a rapidly aging population and shrinking workforce could threaten economic and social stability.
Initially, it allowed couples to have up to two childrenbut then further loosen the policy to allow up to three.
Chinese authorities are also working to lift restrictions on birth registration for children born to unmarried parents in a country where single mothers still face discrimination. .
In February, the health commission of Sichuan province – home to more than 83 million people – said it would allow single parents to register the births of their children, a move that gives them access to former benefits for couples. These benefits include maternity insurance that covers prenatal health care, delivery-related medical expenses, and paid maternity leave.
