China premier under fire over rising medical costs - Benjamin Kang Lim
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, under fire from political rivals over the disintegration of medical welfare, has pledged to expand a pilot program that provides subsidized care to rural residents, sources and state media said.
The vow came days after a 42-year-old farmer with terminal lung cancer set off a home-made bomb aboard a bus in the southeastern province of Fujian in a suicide attack one political source said was linked to his inability to afford treatment.
Wen chaired a cabinet meeting on Wednesday which decided to accelerate the two-year-old pilot program and expand it to cover 40 percent of rural counties nationwide by 2006 from 21 percent now, the official People’s Daily reported on Thursday.
