(Yicai Global) Oct. 12 -- China’s medical insurance fund will not fully cover citizens for Covid-19 vaccines because of the staggering cost.

The total price tag would be beyond the fund’s capacity due to the huge number of people expected to get vaccinated once the jabs become available, the National Healthcare Security Administration said on its website yesterday.

China’s medical insurance system has so far prioritized and funded both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients, while allotting special disbursements to care centers treating cases since the virus broke out, the NHSA said.

Some 135,500 people had paid their treatment costs from the medical insurance system as of July 19 in outlays totaling CNY1.8 billion (USD268 million), of which CNY1.2 billion, or some 67 percent, came from the fund.

Urban and rural residents paid just CNY800 (USD119) per person to the medical insurance fund last year. The system only covers treatments for basic diseases and is unable to expand to non-therapeutic items such as vaccines, the NHSA said.

But China’s Covid-19 vaccines will be affordable, Zheng Zhongwei, director of the National Health Commission’s medical and health technology development center, said at a press conference of the State Council Information Office on Sept. 25.

The country will be able to produce up to 610 million doses annually by year’s end and more than 1 billion next year, according to current projections, said Zheng, who also heads the vaccine research and development unit under the State Council’s joint prevention and control apparatus.

Editor: Ben Armour