THE government’s annual serious-illness insurance program officially started collecting fees June 1, and the collection will terminate at the end of this month, the Daily Sunshine reported.

The annual premium for the serious-illness insurance is 30 yuan (US$4.33) per person for 2019-2020. The guaranteed period is from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020.

Residents who are covered by the city’s social and healthcare insurance can pay the premium in three ways, by group or individual account deduction or through out-of-pocket payment.

Residents who want to pay the premium through out-of-pocket payment can log onto the app “i深圳” and click “重疾保险” (serious illness) on the home page.

The serious-illness insurance program is a supplement to the basic medical insurance to help relieve the burden of medical costs for residents, who can have part of the medical expenses for hospitalization and special medicines reimbursed.

Within the guaranteed period of the insurance, if the medical expenses incurred by the insured during hospitalization fall within the scope of the social medical insurance catalogue and the part that should be paid by the insured totals more than 10,000 yuan, the serious-illness insurance will pay 70 percent of the excess.

Meanwhile, 70 percent of the expenses incurred by the insured for medicines falling within the city’s catalogue of supplementary medical insurance for serious diseases will be covered by the insurance. The maximum reimbursement is 150,000 yuan.

The government’s serious-illness insurance program has won many praises since its implementation Nov. 1, 2015. By the end of 2018, 7.05 million people had participated in the program in the medical insurance year of 2018. (Zhang Yu)