China Outlines Healthcare Security Priorities for the 15th Five-Year Plan

China's healthcare security authorities have outlined their core policy priorities for the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period during a State Council Information Office briefing. The strategic framework focuses on expanding urban employee basic medical insurance to flexible and platform-based workers, directly disbursing maternity allowances to individuals, and establishing a nationwide long-term care insurance system. Regulators also pledged to deepen payment reforms, scale up bulk drug procurement, support domestic innovative medical devices and drugs, and reinforce comprehensive supervisory oversight across healthcare security funds.

The 15th Five-Year Plan framework sets the direction for the world's largest basic medical insurance network, directly impacting personal healthcare costs and social safety nets for hundreds of millions of citizens. For multinational pharmaceutical companies and domestic biotech firms, China's commitment to normalizing volume-based procurement alongside increased formulary support for breakthrough drugs will dictate market access terms, pricing ceilings, and commercial viability in the world's second-largest healthcare market.

China's healthcare authorities have unveiled a strategic roadmap for healthcare security reform covering the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period, emphasizing broader population coverage, demographic support measures, and institutionalized cost controls, according to details disclosed at a State Council Information Office press conference. According to Securities Times, officials announced that during the 15th Five-Year Plan cycle, medical security departments will focus on consolidating universal coverage by optimizing enrollment structures. Specific efforts will concentrate on expanding the enrollment of flexibly employed workers, rural migrant workers, and personnel in new employment forms into the urban employee basic medical insurance scheme. To address demographic shifts, authorities pledged to elevate maternity security standards. The government will implement direct settlement of maternity medical expenses and ensure that maternity cash allowances are disbursed directly to insured individuals rather than through intermediate institutional accounts. In tandem, the medical security administration plans to formally establish a comprehensive long-term care insurance system nationwide, standardizing care policies and boosting long-term care service capacities to support the country's aging population. On the supply and spending side, authorities affirmed plans to deepen medical insurance payment method reforms to help public healthcare institutions enhance operating efficiencies. Regulators indicated that centralized volume-based procurement of pharmaceuticals and high-value medical consumables will be conducted on a normalized, standardized, and institutionalized basis. Parallel coverage from China News Service highlighted commitments to continue widening the scope of centralized bulk buying to foster fair and rational industry competition, while deploying digital price-comparison mini-programs broadly across designated retail pharmacies. In addition, officials highlighted structural shifts in formulary management. Regulators reiterated support for innovative drugs, devices, and healthcare services within the national medical insurance catalogue, aiming to assist Chinese biopharmaceutical firms in expanding abroad. These supportive measures will be matched by tighter governance: healthcare authorities underscored plans to enforce full-lifecycle fund management and intensify anti-fraud supervision across the healthcare security system.