BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers are revising a provision in the draft healthcare security law to specify that the country will improve the maternity insurance system and broaden its coverage.

The draft law is now under a second deliberation at a session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee that began on Monday.

The draft stipulates that those covered by maternity insurance will receive benefits for childbirth-related medical expenses and maternity allowances, as stipulated by national regulations. Non-employed spouses will receive coverage for childbirth-related medical expenses.

The move comes as China has stepped up efforts in recent years to extend maternity insurance to people in flexible employment, with some parts of the country, from northeast China's Jilin Province to south China's Hainan Province, already implementing the reform. Currently, 255 million people in China are enrolled in the scheme.

Thanks to the rapid development of information technology, a large number of people in China are now working on their own terms -- as delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers, or freelancers -- bringing the total number of flexible workers to more than 200 million. Officials say flexible work is creating new job opportunities and giving fresh momentum to economic growth.

By enshrining reforms to improve and expand maternity insurance in the draft law, more people, especially those in flexible employment, will be covered by maternity insurance, said Liu Xuanlin, deputy director of the medical security law and policy research center of China University of Political Science and Law and deputy secretary-general of the China Health Law Society.

"This protects their reproductive and health rights, lowers their medical costs, and could help boost their willingness to have children," he added.

Li Hui, a resident of Haikou in Hainan, is self-employed but enrolled in maternity insurance. It cost her just 80 yuan (about 12 U.S. dollars) to give birth last year because most of the cost was covered.

After finding out that the reform will be written into law, she said: "With maternity insurance coverage expanding, people like me will have greater protections, which will allow us to feel more at ease and more reassured."

At present, flexible workers across China can voluntarily enroll in two types of social security -- basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance for employees. Now, a third -- maternity insurance -- is gradually being added to the list, without increasing their premiums.

Liu said bringing flexible workers under the umbrella of social insurance reflects the government's people-centered approach to social governance and its commitment to making the system fair and accessible for all.

"The core is a return to institutional respect for the dignity and family well-being of every worker," he said.

Behind the provision also lies a demographic challenge facing China. Since 2022, China's population has been shrinking, while the number of elderly people has continued to climb.

Experts believe the change to the draft will help gradually raise the birth rate and improve the country's population structure.

In recent years, the government has introduced a series of policies to boost the birth rate, including childcare subsidies, housing support, expanded nursery services and encouraging flexible working arrangements.

Population expert Dong Yuzheng said the hope is that the policies will encourage society to recognize the social value of marriage and childbearing, while continuing to build a more family-friendly society.

In addition to maternity insurance, the draft law also adds a provision stating that the country encourages the development of commercial health insurance, charitable donations related to healthcare and mutual medical aid, in order to meet diverse health security needs.

"This revision clarifies the top-level design of China's healthcare insurance system from a legal perspective," said Zhang Qing, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law.

He explained that the healthcare insurance system is a multi-layered, complementary system of protection, where basic medical insurance plays the lead role, supported by critical illness insurance and medical assistance as a safety net, with commercial health insurance, charitable donations and mutual medical aid working together.

He added that the change also leaves room for the future development of long-term care insurance, making the entire medical security net more comprehensive and more sustainable.

The draft also stipulates that efforts should be made to coordinate local governments to establish a risk control mechanism for the basic medical insurance fund, and develop a medium-to-long-term revenue-expenditure balance mechanism as well as an emergency response mechanism.

According to experts, the new emergency response mechanism for funds is mainly aimed at dealing with the risk of revenue falling short of expenditure in some regions' resident medical insurance schemes, and at strengthening the responsibility of local authorities to balance their budgets. ■