Nearly 1.4 billion covered by health insurance in China

Meals on wheels An autonomous lunch cart parked outside the Baidu Inc R&D Center in Shanghai, China. Margins were the focal point for investors when Baidu reported its 2Q results yesterday, reflecting costs of new technology and the government’s clampdown on the tech sector, analysts reported. — Bloomberg

BEIJING: China's healthcare plans had covered 1.36 billion residents by the end of last year after the country worked for decades to create a sturdier insurance safety net in the world's most populous nation, a white paper said on Thursday.

Further, maternity insurance, which compensates costs related to childbirth and offers subsidies to insured new mothers, had covered 235 million people by the end of 2020, as the country works to bolster fertility to slow the aging process, said the white paper released by the State Council Information Office.