(Yicai) May 22 -- Shanghai has become the latest Chinese provincial-level region to include assisted reproductive services in its medical insurance scheme, one week after eastern Jiangxi province announced a similar move, as part of the nation’s drive to counter a dwindling population.

Twelve fertility treatments, including egg retrieval, will be covered by Shanghai’s medical insurance program from June, the Shanghai Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau said yesterday.

The assisted reproduction services mainly center around test-tube babies and artificial insemination, Han Zhigang, deputy chief physician of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital at Fudan University, told Yicai.

"In the past, sterile patients paid for their own treatment. Including assisted reproduction services in medical insurance will help infertile couples have children by reducing their financial burden as the cost of such treatments is high," Han said. With in vitro fertilization, the success rate is between 40 percent and 60 percent, and the cost per session ranges from CNY30,000 (USD4,100) to CNY50,000.

The policy will be rolled out across 17 hospitals in Shanghai that are qualified to carry out assisted reproduction and are part of the medical insurance program, according to a person in charge at the Shanghai Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau.

The policy not only applies to Shanghai residents, but also insured people from other parts of the country who are eligible to be reimbursed for the 12 assisted reproduction services laid out in the Shanghai Medical Insurance Catalog. The specific reimbursement ratio depends on the agreement with their insurance scheme in their place of residence.

Last year, China logged negative population growth of 1.4 percent, with the death rate of 7.87 percent outstripping the birth rate of 6.39 percent.

And the number of sterile couples in the country is increasing. In 2016, there were more than 50 million people being treated for infertility in China, accounting for between 12.5 percent and 15 percent of the population of childbearing age, according to a recent research report released by the China Population Association.

More than 300,000 babies are born through assisted reproduction in China every year. Since last year, Beijing, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jiangxi province and other provincial-level regions have included fertility treatment in their basic medical insurance.

Editor: Kim Taylor