China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Finance have jointly issued a circular on the transfer of medical insurance within the country's migrant population.

The circular, which is called "Provisional Measures on the Transfer and Renewal of Medical Insurance of Migrant Workers", states that from July 1, 2010, people who are covered by the basic medical insurance or the new rural cooperative medical insurance system can transfer their medical insurance information to their new work place. The circular stresses that no household registration limit or other barriers shall be made regarding the transfer of the medical insurance.

The circular says that the introduction of the identification card will be made gradually. The identification code shall only be used for the transfer of various medical insurances and the insurance payment information of the migrant population shall be updated in a timely manner to ensure the completeness and continuity of their insurance records.

The circular states that when the insured needs to transfer their medical insurance to a new region, the insurance service operator at their original work place shall issue a certificate showing the person"s insurance payment status to the operator of the new region. In addition it should keep the insurance information of the person for later verification.

At present, there are about 1.2 billion people in China covered by the medical insurance system, but many of them cannot have their medical insurance transferred after they change their work place. It is expected that the new policy will help these people solve the medical insurance problem in case of work place change and promote reform of the country's medical system.

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