Who can help sum up the steps of social security system reform promulgated by China since the mid-1990s?

China began to reform its social security system in 1980s. Since the middle and late 1990s, the pace of reform and construction of social security system in China has obviously accelerated. At present, the overall framework of the new social security system, especially the social insurance system, has been initially established.

As the most populous developing country in the world and one of the biggest social projects in human history in the process of economic system transition and industrialization, the reform and development of China's social security system still faces many difficulties and problems.

Focus 1: From unit security to social security

Before the reform, China's social security system implemented public-owned economic units (urban enterprises and institutions, rural people's communes, production brigades), and it was a "unit" guarantee characterized by national finance (it would not bankrupt economic units). It adopts the operation mode of pay-as-you-go, and individuals do not directly bear the security costs, and implement differentiated security treatment according to the social status stipulated by the state (such as cadres, workers, farmers, etc.). The unit guarantee system is the product of the planned economy system, which is closely related to the nature of state-owned enterprises and has become a typical embodiment of the dislocation of the roles of the government and enterprises. Enterprises (units) running the society have formed a unit security system, rather than a "socialized" social security system. After the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, the unit security system is increasingly unable to meet the requirements of enterprise competition and labor mobility, and it is urgent to establish a socialized security system independent of enterprises.

The new social security system is a socialized social security system, which not only promotes the transformation of employees from "unit people" to "social people", but also has economic sustainability, taking into account the fairness of coverage, level and degree. Therefore, the new security system should change the "complete" responsibility of the unit and the state, diversify the financing from a single subject, and link the security treatment with "contribution" rather than "identity" to realize the unity of rights and obligations, fairness and efficiency. This is precisely the goal of China's social security system in the process of reform, that is, to establish a social security system independent of enterprises and institutions, with diversified sources of funds, standardized security system and socialized management services.

According to the above objectives, China has gradually reformed the social insurance, social assistance and social welfare systems, which has promoted the development of the new social security system. By the end of 200 1, there were108.02 million employees who participated in the basic old-age insurance (31650,000 enterprise retirees), and the socialized distribution rate of basic pension reached 98%, with 547 100 employees who participated in the basic medical insurance and100 employees who participated in the unemployment insurance. In that year, the income and expenditure of the national social insurance fund reached 29 1.46 billion yuan and 25.9/kloc-0.00 billion yuan respectively, and the accumulated balance of the social insurance fund over the years was/kloc-0.3966 billion yuan; The annual expenditure on social relief and social welfare reached 42.6 billion yuan, covering/kloc-0.50 million urban and rural residents who received minimum living security, more than 60 million urban and rural residents who received temporary assistance, and a considerable number of entitled groups, disabled people and some special security groups.

Focus 2: Significant progress has been made in the reform of the social security system.

China began to reform its social security system in 1980s. Since the middle and late 1990s, with the deepening of the reform of state-owned enterprises, the pace of reform and construction of China's social security system has obviously accelerated. At present, the overall framework of the new social security system, especially the social insurance system, has been initially established.

(1) The endowment insurance system for employees in urban enterprises is moving from decentralization to unification. From 65438 to 0997, the State Council issued the Decision on Establishing a Unified Basic Old-age Insurance System for Enterprise Employees, which determined a unified old-age insurance system for urban enterprise employees. From 65438 to 0998, the reform of government institutions determined that the Ministry of Labor and Social Security was the unified management institution for managing the social insurance system, and the overall planning of industries was gradually delegated to local governments. The long-term fragmentation of the old-age insurance system has basically ended, and the old-age insurance system for urban enterprises has basically been unified.

(2) The reform of urban medical insurance system has been gradually deepened. The medical insurance system involves the complicated relationship among the insured, medical institutions and medical market, which leads to more twists and turns in the reform. From 65438 to 0998, the State Council promulgated the Decision on Establishing the Medical Insurance System for Urban Employees, which defined the basic framework of the urban medical insurance system.

(3) The reform of the unemployment insurance system has made solid progress. As a country with a transitional economic system, how to digest the tens of millions of surplus workers trapped in the "ineffective employment" of state-owned enterprises has become a "difficulty" that China must overcome to deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and accelerate the pace of marketization. The unemployment (unemployment) insurance system established in 1980s is difficult to undertake this important task because of its narrow coverage, low fund raising ratio and small fund scale. As a last resort, China adopted a two-pronged approach, combining the establishment of unemployment insurance system with the "laid-off" system of employees in state-owned enterprises to ensure social stability in the process of employment marketization. From 65438 to 0999, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on Unemployment Insurance, which increased the collection ratio of unemployment insurance benefits, expanded the fund scale and played an increasingly important role. Starting from 200 1, China gradually abolished the "laid-off" system for employees of state-owned enterprises and merged it with the unemployment insurance system as a transitional measure.

(4) Establish a social insurance system with China characteristics, which combines social pooling with individual accounts. Within the framework of urban workers' basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance system, the establishment of personal account system is an integral part of "basic" insurance system, rather than "supplementary" insurance in general sense, thus forming the "China characteristics" of social insurance system. At the same time, combining the pay-as-you-go system of social insurance fund operation with the fund accumulation system is a partial accumulation system or mixed mode of "f * * king" management. This reform plan is a new attempt in the development history of the world social security system, but it also faces the difficult problem of how to deal with the relationship between social pooling and individual accounts.

(5) Significant progress has been made in the construction of social assistance system. The traditional social relief system is mainly aimed at poor people with poor health, no ability to work and no source of income, and its coverage is very low. From 65438 to 0993, Shanghai took the lead in establishing the minimum living security system for urban residents, and then this system gradually covered all urban residents and extended to rural areas with conditions. Aiming at a large number of rural poor people, China has implemented an effective poverty alleviation and development strategy, which has become an international example to solve the poverty problem.

(6) The social welfare system has been developed in the reform. Social welfare system is a higher level of social security. In recent years, on the one hand, the state has increased its investment in special care and resettlement, disability welfare and maternal and child health care, on the other hand, it has adhered to the principle of social welfare, changed the traditional practice of the state taking all social welfare undertakings, actively mobilized social forces and market forces, and solved the problems of lack of social welfare funds and ineffective mechanisms. All localities adhere to the principle of combining employment placement, employment support and self-employment, and gradually reform the practice of compulsory placement of retired soldiers, thus speeding up the resettlement progress of retired soldiers. Through the development of charity, welfare lottery and other measures, the source of funds for social welfare undertakings has been expanded, and social donation has embarked on a regular and standardized track.

Focus 3: Who will provide for the aged when I am old?

The basic old-age insurance system for employees in urban enterprises was established according to the State Council 1997 Decision on Establishing a Unified Basic Old-age Insurance System for Employees in Enterprises. This system combines social pooling with individual accounts. This is a mixed mode of pay-as-you-go and fund accumulation. On the one hand, it aims to complete the "system transformation" of social insurance from "unit guarantee" to "social security" and provide basic insurance for retirees who have not accumulated; On the other hand, it is hoped that China will allow employees to accumulate certain social insurance funds, especially pensions, for themselves within 20 to 30 years when economic growth and population structure are in the golden age, so as to reduce the burden of enterprises and finance and develop the capital market.

Compared with the simple pay-as-you-go system or fund accumulation system, the mixed mode has its own operating mechanism. First of all, enterprises and employees should jointly raise funds. The new system stipulates that all enterprises in cities and towns and their employees must fulfill the obligation to pay the basic old-age insurance premium (self-employed and freelancers in cities and towns participate independently). The contribution ratio of enterprises is generally about 20% of the total wages of enterprises, and the contribution ratio of individuals is 8% of their own wages. Secondly, establish two pension systems: pooling funds and individual accounts. Basic pension consists of basic pension and personal account pension. The basic pension is paid by the social pooling fund, and the personal account pension can be inherited. For employees who joined the work before the implementation of the new system and retired after the implementation ("middle people"), transitional pensions will be added. Third, the new system requires investment in accumulated funds to preserve and increase the value of accumulated funds. The number of social pooling funds should ensure the payment of pensions for existing retirees. At the same time, on the premise of ensuring safety, by investing in the provident fund deposited in personal accounts, the investment income of the provident fund can be realized, and the financing ratio of future pensions to "middle people" and "newcomers" can be reduced.

After several years of promotion, the basic old-age insurance system for employees in urban enterprises in China has developed rapidly. The number of insured employees increased from 867 10000 at the end of 197 to 108002 at the end of 2006, with 5438+0; The number of people receiving basic pensions increased from 25.33 million to 338 1 10,000; The income of the basic old-age insurance fund increased from 654.38+096.5 billion yuan to 242.6 billion yuan; The average monthly basic pension has also been raised from 430 yuan to 556 yuan. At the same time, the basic pension has been basically paid by social service institutions (such as banks and post offices).

In recent years, a large number of employees have withdrawn from the labor market, and the number of retirees has increased rapidly, resulting in a high rate of basic old-age insurance (the current rate is as high as 28%) and a heavy burden on enterprises, which has affected their enthusiasm for participating in insurance and fund income. At present, the social pooling fund can't make ends meet, and the basic old-age insurance is seriously in arrears, which leads to the "empty account" operation of personal accounts. In the long run, it will affect the healthy operation of the basic old-age insurance system.

In order to solve the problem that the social pooling fund can't make ends meet and the personal account is empty, the government has put forward a new plan to improve the basic old-age insurance system for urban workers since 2000, and Liaoning Province and other provinces have chosen a prefecture-level city for pilot. On the one hand, the new scheme increases the financial subsidies for the basic old-age pension (from 1998 to 200 1, the central government's subsidies for the basic old-age insurance reached 866,543.8 billion yuan) and new financial resources; On the other hand, the proportion of funds between social pooling and individual accounts has been changed. All the contributions of enterprises (20%) have entered the social pooling fund, and individual accounts are all composed of individual contributions, with a contribution ratio of 4.

Focus 4: Multi-level endowment insurance system

Supplementary endowment insurance is an important part of multi-level endowment insurance system. According to the "three pillars" theory of foreign old-age security, the national basic old-age insurance belongs to the "first pillar", and the supplementary old-age insurance provided by the unit (also known as "occupational annuity", "supplementary pension" or "private annuity") and the supplementary retirement income established by individual workers belong to the "second pillar" and "third pillar". Since 1980s, more and more countries have chosen a multi-level economic security system for the elderly as a countermeasure to solve the national financial burden and cope with the aging population. 199565438+February, the Ministry of Labor of China issued "Opinions on Establishing Enterprise Supplementary Endowment Insurance System", which put forward the basic framework for developing enterprise supplementary endowment insurance system in China. From June, 5438 to February, 2000, the State Council renamed the supplementary old-age insurance for enterprises as "enterprise annuity" in the "Pilot Program for Perfecting the Urban Social Security System", making it clear that the part within 4% of the total wages paid by enterprises can be charged from the cost, and the enterprise annuity fund is managed and operated in a market-oriented way.

China's enterprise supplementary pension insurance (enterprise annuity) system is divided into two types: industry enterprise annuity and local enterprise annuity. The state encourages but does not force enterprises to establish an enterprise annuity system. Restricted by the management system, capital market and other conditions, the supplementary endowment insurance accumulation fund lacks market-oriented investment channels. At present, we can only deposit in the bank and buy government bonds, and the rate of return on funds is very low.

Commercial pension insurance, also known as "personal annuity" or personal pension insurance plan. As a commercial endowment insurance purchased voluntarily by individuals or families, it forms a multi-level endowment insurance system together with public annuity and occupational annuity. With the development of the aging population, the responsibility of individuals in solving their own old-age security has become increasingly prominent, which has prompted the rapid development of individual annuity insurance after the 1970s. China began to develop commercial life insurance in 1990s. In 2000, the ratio of total premium income of life insurance to 1990 increased by nearly 20 times, of which "life insurance" increased by 37 times. After China's entry into WTO, the further opening and sustainable development of the insurance industry will become the driving force for the transformation of bank savings into commercial life insurance. Therefore, commercial endowment insurance has a broad development prospect in China. The government should really regard personal annuity as the "third pillar" of old-age insurance, and promote it in tax policy (such as implementing appropriate personal income tax reduction or delay collection) and investment policy.

Focus 5: Difficult medical insurance system reform.

In the process of market-oriented reform of economic system, a large number of state-owned and collective enterprises are unable to reimburse medical expenses and lose medical security because of operational difficulties or even bankruptcy. At the same time, because the newly established enterprises, especially non-public enterprises, have not established the corresponding medical security system. In addition, the lack of self-discipline, excessive demand and inadequate management have stimulated some unreasonable medical consumption and led to a sharp increase in medical expenses. The growth of health expenditure has greatly exceeded the capacity of the national economy. With the gradual deepening of economic system reform and enterprise reform, it has to be reformed.

From the early 1980s to 1988, enterprises and local governments spontaneously reformed free medical care and labor insurance medical care. 1988- 1997 is the pilot period of the medical system reform led by the central government, which mainly put forward the Opinions on Trying out the Overall Planning of Medical Expenses for Serious Illness of Employees, and carried out the pilot reform of "Two Rivers" according to the spirit of the document of the Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee held in 1993 and the principle of "combining unified accounts". According to the pilot summary, the State Council promulgated the Decision on Establishing the Basic Medical Insurance System for Employees on 1998, which defined the basic framework of the new system.

The main characteristics of the new system are low level (the level of insurance benefits is consistent with the level of economic development), wide coverage (covering all employers and their employees in cities and towns), common burden (medical insurance funds are shared by both units and employees), unified account (the collection, management and use of basic medical insurance funds are combined with social pooling and personal accounts), and multi-level protection is implemented. By the end of 200 1, more than 90% of prefecture-level cities in China had started medical insurance, and the number of employees participating in basic medical insurance increased from 15 1000 to 547 100, and the number of retirees increased from 3.69 million to 100. In 20001year, the income of the national basic medical insurance fund was 38.4 billion yuan, the fund expenditure was 24.4 billion yuan, and the accumulated balance was 25.3 billion yuan.

Although all regions attach great importance to this work and have made great efforts, the coverage of the basic medical insurance system for urban workers is still small, accounting for only about 1/4 of urban workers, which is lower than the coverage of public medical care and labor insurance medical care system 1.995. There are many reasons for this. Objectively speaking, medical insurance is called a "worldwide problem" because it involves not only the relationship between the insured and medical insurance institutions, but also the producers, sellers and providers of medical services, and the relationship is very complicated. Subjectively, compared with free medical care and labor insurance, the basic medical insurance system not only requires employees to pay a certain proportion of expenses (generally 2% of their wages), but also only guarantees "basic medical care" for "basic diseases", and the reimbursement ratio is not high. This means that the relatively high level of medical benefits in the past has been reduced, resulting in a considerable number of employees who can implement labor insurance medical care and public medical care are not enthusiastic about the new system. The enthusiasm of medical service providers to strengthen the control of medical expenses is not high. From the perspective of system, there are different understandings and even great disputes on how to treat the role of medical personal accounts, how to deal with the proportional relationship and payment standard between the two accounts, and how to determine the relationship between "basic medical insurance" and "supplementary medical insurance" and "commercial medical insurance", which also has certain influence on promoting the new medical insurance system. In addition, there are obvious differences between regions in China, and the benefits between industries and enterprises are also very different, which increases the difficulty of localized management. Therefore, how to further promote the development of urban basic medical insurance system is still a very arduous task. (Zhou Xia Hu Jinxi)

Focus 6: Can we safely pass the peak of laid-off unemployment?

Since the reform and opening up, China has created more than 65.438+0.7 billion jobs, but the employment situation is becoming increasingly severe. Since the mid-1990s, the number of registered unemployed people in cities and towns has soared from 654.38+3.64 million in192 to 5438+0, which is the focus of the national development strategy in 2006, and urban social security has naturally become the core of the national social security system. But this does not mean that rural social security is not important, nor does it mean that farmers do not need social security. In fact, since the late 1980s and early 1990s, China has also vigorously advocated the restoration and development of rural cooperative medical system and actively promoted the establishment of rural socialized old-age insurance system. Socialized old-age insurance and cooperative medical care in rural areas of China have made rapid progress in some periods and regions, but overall, little progress has been made, and some work has stagnated. The number of people participating in rural social endowment insurance decreased from more than 80 million in 1998 to more than 50 million in 200 1 year. At present, the proportion of rural cooperative medical care still in operation is very small, mainly concentrated in the suburbs around large and medium-sized cities and some developed coastal areas.

The stagnation or even decline of rural social endowment insurance system is caused by many factors. One of the important reasons is the disagreement between theoretical and political circles on whether it is necessary to establish a social endowment insurance system in rural areas. The main reason why we don't advocate continuing to carry out rural social endowment insurance is that "farmers don't have much ability and conditions to participate in endowment insurance", and rural families can still play the role of providing for the aged, so it is unnecessary or ineffective to carry out social endowment insurance. In addition, farmers' families own a piece of land, which can be the last guarantee for farmers. Although these views have some truth, they should not be the reason why rural areas do not need social endowment insurance, especially when the existing rural social endowment insurance system is terminated: (1) Developing rural social endowment insurance is an objective requirement of the changes in China's economic and social structure and an important measure to deal with the aging population. (2) The rural family pension system is facing challenges. With the development of rural non-agricultural industries, the increase of farmers' mobility and the change of family concept, a large number of rural laborers have moved to cities and towns, and more and more rural elderly people live alone, which urgently needs the support of rural social security system. (3) It is difficult for rural old-age care to rely entirely on land security. Although land is the last guarantee for farmers, due to the limitation of land system, land quantity and land income, land cannot be overestimated, and it is impossible to make a living simply by relying on this land. (4) Some areas already have the conditions to carry out rural social endowment insurance. We should continue to encourage qualified areas to proceed from local conditions and continue to carry out rural social endowment insurance.

Cooperative medical care was once one of the three major medical security systems in cities and towns alongside public medical care and labor insurance medical care. In 1970s, its coverage rate reached 90% of the national administrative villages (production brigades). "Cooperative medical care" (system), together with cooperative "health stations" (institutions) and a large number of "barefoot doctors" teams (personnel), have become the three magic weapons to solve the problem of lack of medicine and medicine in the vast rural areas of China. It is praised by the World Bank and the World Health Organization as "the only example for developing countries to solve health expenditure". With the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, the cooperative medical system based on agricultural cooperatives declined. 1985, the coverage rate of cooperative medical care dropped to 5%. In the early 1990s, the only cooperative medical system in China was mainly distributed in Shanghai and southern Jiangsu. Due to the large rural population, there are not only a large number of "three noes" (no income, no ability to work and no economic source) who need social relief, but also about 30-40 million rural poor people. To solve the problems of poverty alleviation and food and clothing for a large number of poor rural residents, we must continue to vigorously implement the effective poverty alleviation and development strategy. This is an active rural social security policy, and it is also the key and difficult point to establish the rural social assistance system with China characteristics. If we only rely on social relief and the minimum living security system instead of poverty alleviation and economic development in poverty-stricken areas, it will bring great pressure to the national finance. Starting from 1997, the minimum living security system for rural residents will be gradually established in areas where conditions permit. In 2000, 3.002 million villagers in China received the minimum living guarantee. By the end of May 2002, 3.38 million rural residents had received the minimum living guarantee, accounting for 10% of the total rural poor population. With the economic growth and the attention of governments at all levels to rural poverty, the rural minimum living security system has great room for development.

Focus 9: Continuously develop and improve the social welfare system.

Social welfare is a social policy and social security that the government and society provide basic living security for social members and improve their living conditions through various forms of welfare services, welfare enterprises and welfare allowances. For all citizens, it covers a wide range of contents (such as national education welfare, housing welfare, occupational welfare and social welfare for the elderly, children's welfare, women's welfare, disabled welfare, etc.). ) and many levels. The purpose is to improve and improve the quality of life of members of society. Social assistance mainly solves the survival crisis of poor or unfortunate social members, social insurance mainly solves the basic living security of workers, and social welfare is called higher-level social security while solving the living security of some social members.

The social welfare system in China mainly refers to the system established by the government to provide living security for the elderly, orphans and disabled people with special difficulties. In order to protect the life rights and interests of groups with special difficulties, the state has promulgated the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, the Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Disabled, and the Regulations on Rural Five Guarantees. By the end of 20001,there were 3,327 social welfare institutions organized by governments at all levels, with190,000 people adopted; There are 35,000 social welfare institutions organized collectively, and 668,000 people have been adopted; 934 private social welfare institutions adopted 34,000 people. For the disabled, various forms of social welfare enterprises (200 1 38,000 in total) have been set up through preferential policies of the government, and the employment policy for the disabled in proportion has been implemented to help the disabled who are suitable for work obtain employment opportunities. From 1996 to 2000, more than100000 disabled people were trained and placed in employment through government subsidies and employment security funds for the disabled.

China has also implemented a preferential treatment and resettlement system. This refers to the system of compensation and recognition for special social groups that have made contributions to the country and society. In order to protect the rights and interests of the special care and resettlement objects, the state has successively promulgated the Regulations on Praising Revolutionary Martyrs. The unfairness and illegality of the social security system reform are still very prominent. The urban social security system is facing the long-term pressure of how to continuously "increase the capacity" and "improve the mechanism". Social security for more than 20 years is mainly based on the decisions or regulations of the State Council and even local governments, but there is no national social insurance law, social assistance law and social security law. The lag of social security legislation not only makes the authority of the new social security system insufficient, but also reflects the "non-legalization" color of China's social security system reform and construction, making it difficult to effectively implement many reform measures.