Starting from July 1, Beijing’s government has announced that 16 types of assisted reproduction technology will be covered by the city’s health care system. This initiative is aimed at addressing China’s declining birth rate and is the latest effort by authorities to tackle this issue.
Basic insurance will now include treatments such as in-vitro fertilization, embryo transplantation, and the freezing and storing of semen, according to Du Xin, the deputy director of Beijing’s Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau. This step follows China’s first population drop in six decades, with the number of newborns reaching a record low of 6.77 per 1,000 people last year. Further decline is expected in 2023.
In August of last year, China’s National Health Commission provided guidance to provinces on policy reforms to support fertility rates. In line with this, the northeastern province of Liaoning announced in May that it would also include assisted reproduction technologies.
Beijing’s announcement coincides with the impending court verdict for Teresa Xu, an unmarried 35-year-old woman who sued a Beijing public hospital for refusing to freeze her eggs based on her marital status. To address concerns about China’s rapidly aging population, government political advisers proposed in March that single and unmarried women should have access to egg freezing and in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, among other services. However, a national rule requiring marriage makes it difficult for unmarried women across the country to access fertility treatments like IVF and egg freezing technologies.
Some private clinics in provinces such as Sichuan in the southwest have already begun offering IVF due to declining birth rates. Investors and industry executives caution that nationwide liberalization of fertility treatments could create greater demand in the world’s largest market for such services and strain already limited fertility services.
