“People’s health is the priority, thus efforts must be made to make good use of and manage healthcare insurance funds to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people,” Premier Li Keqiang said at the State Council executive meeting on Dec 9.

A draft regulation on supervision and management of healthcare insurance fund was passed at the meeting, which decided the rights and responsibilities of healthcare departments, designated medical institutions and those insured.

The regulation will enhance healthcare services for the people and ensure timely settlement and allocation of healthcare insurance funds.

According to the National Healthcare Security Administration, by the end of last year, the number of people joining basic healthcare insurance exceeded 1.35 billion.

“Covering such a large population, the healthcare fund should be managed by  law,” Premier Li said. “The regulations can help the healthcare insurance fund better support basic healthcare, and make it more effective, reasonable and secure.”

The healthcare insurance fund consists of both national finance investment and individual contributions. With improvement of the country’s economic and social level and people’s living standards, people are paying more and more attention to their health, resulting in higher individual contributions to healthcare insurance funds, Premier Li said.

Therefore, supervision must be strengthened to assure the public the money invested will be definitely insured, thereby motivating more people to join the insurance, the Premier said.

The rules also noted misbehavior like forging or falsifying medical documents and making up medical services to defraud healthcare insurance funds are forbidden and will be punished.