Beijing Expands Health Care Coverage for Fertility Treatments, Aims to Boost Birth Rate

Beijing: Beijing’s government has recently announced a significant step to address China’s declining birth rate. Starting from July 1, the city’s health care system will cover 16 types of assisted reproduction technology under basic insurance. These technologies include in-vitro fertilisation, embryo transplantation, and semen freezing and storage, among others. This move aims to encourage couples to seek fertility treatments and boost the country’s dwindling population.

The decision by Beijing’s Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau follows the guidelines issued by China’s National Health Commission in August last year. The commission urged provinces to reform policies and support fertility rates. Liaoning, a province in northeast China, has already announced its plan to include assisted reproduction technologies from the same date.

The announcement also coincides with a pending court verdict for Teresa Xu, a 35-year-old unmarried woman who sued a Beijing public hospital for denying her the right to freeze her eggs due to her marital status. This case has highlighted the challenges faced by unmarried women across the country in accessing fertility treatments such as IVF and egg freezing, as current national rules require them to be married.

Recognizing the urgency to address China’s rapidly aging population, government political advisers proposed in March that single and unmarried women should have access to egg freezing and IVF treatments. This move towards liberalizing fertility treatments nationwide could potentially unlock a considerable demand in the world’s largest market for such services. However, it may also strain the limited resources of fertility services, as private clinics in provinces like Sichuan have already witnessed a surge in demand due to declining birth rates.