The Present Situation of Social Insurance System in China

From centralized government management to multiple autonomous management-the future development of the management mode of social insurance institutions in China.

Social insurance system; Organizational management mode; Centralized management by the government; More self-management, national secretarial workers!

Organizational management mode is an important restrictive factor in the development of social insurance system. The organizational management mode of social insurance in China is a typical centralized government management mode characterized by official establishment, official management, official operation and official supervision. This model excludes the participation right of both employers and employees, the most important responsible subjects in the social insurance system, which has a negative impact on the self-regulation and self-development of the social insurance system. The management mode of China's social insurance organizations should be changed from centralized government management to multi-party cooperative autonomous management mode, and a social insurance autonomous management committee composed of government, employers' representatives, workers' representatives and experts should be established to realize the self-supervision and self-development of social insurance and ensure the healthy and sustainable development of the social insurance system. The implementation of this organizational management model must also create corresponding conditions, including handing over the right to formulate the social insurance system to the National People's Congress, and promoting the implementation of social insurance in the direction of combining government and people.

In recent years, the social insurance reform in China has been going on continuously, but it still faces many problems and difficulties. Under the centralized management of the government, employers and workers lack both the right to speak and the right to participate, and the social insurance responsibility goes to the government. In view of this, it has become an important task to reflect on the organizational management model of China's social insurance system.

First, China's social insurance is a centralized government management model of official establishment, official management, official office and official supervision. China is a typical centralized country, and this traditional color has been fully reflected in the field of social security. In the era of planned economy, the social insurance for urban workers in China is a national insurance system in the name of labor insurance. Although it is directly provided by the unit where the workers work, it is completely subject to the policy norms and administrative management of the national government. Units have no autonomy, and the profits and losses of enterprises do not affect the labor protection rights and interests of employees. State finance is actually the economic basis and material guarantee of the labor insurance system. Therefore, although it is a unit that provides labor insurance, it is actually only the last link in the organization and management of the national insurance system.

Since the mid-1990s, due to the rapid advancement of China's economic system reform, the original labor insurance system was abandoned because it could not meet the needs of market economic system reform, and a new social insurance system was gradually established. Compared with the national insurance model of labor insurance, China's current social insurance system has achieved the following changes: First, the system model has changed from the original pay-as-you-go national insurance system of labor insurance to a partially accumulated social insurance system. Second, the financial responsibility has changed from the original national government responsibility to the joint responsibility of the government, enterprises and employees. Third, the implementation mode has changed from the original unit division and closed operation to a unified and open socialized implementation. The above transformation shows that China social insurance has basically completed the task of system transformation. However, as far as the organizational management mode of social insurance is concerned, this change only changes the decentralized implementation of state-owned units into the unified implementation of government agencies, which still has a strong color of centralized government management. Specifically includes the following aspects:

First, the current social insurance system is regulated by administrative regulations, rules or documents formulated by the government. So far, China's legislature has not passed the corresponding social insurance legislation. Although the Social Insurance Law has been decided to be included in the legislative plan of this year's term of office of the legislature, it is still difficult to rise to the level of legal norms of the legislature in recent years. The current social insurance system is established by the relevant administrative regulations or rules formulated by the functional departments or local governments in the State Council or the State Council. At the national level, the basis for standardizing basic old-age insurance and medical insurance is not even standardized administrative regulations, but reform plans and decisions issued in the name of the State Council; Unemployment insurance and industrial injury insurance are managed by the Regulations on Unemployment Insurance and the Regulations on Industrial Injury Insurance successively formulated by the State Council. The only way to regulate maternity insurance is the trial measures issued by the labor administrative department. In terms of the collection of social insurance premiums, the Provisional Regulations on the Collection of Social Insurance Fees formulated by the State Council stipulates. The financial accounting system and fund management of social insurance are regulated by the administrative department through relevant policy documents. Local governments also have the right to formulate corresponding policies within the framework of central policies to regulate local social insurance affairs. It can be seen that the basis of China's current social insurance system is not determined by the legislature, but by the government, which affects the authority and stability of the social insurance system.

Second, the competent department of social insurance affairs is the administrative department of labor and social security of the government. According to the structure and responsibilities of the government of China, the administrative department of labor and social security is responsible for the management of social insurance affairs throughout the country. The central government is the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and the local government is the Labor and Social Security Bureau. This department formulates various social insurance policies and manages corresponding social insurance affairs.

Third, various social insurance businesses are handled by the official social insurance management center bureau located in the labor security system. For example, the social insurance management center at the central level is actually completely under the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and the local social insurance agencies are also under the local labor and social security administrative departments. The government handles and undertakes various social insurance businesses. In some areas, local tax authorities are entrusted to collect social insurance premiums on their behalf, which more strongly shows the government's intervention in specific social insurance affairs.

Fourth, it is the government administrative department that supervises the operation of social insurance. On the one hand, the financial department of the government is responsible for the daily supervision of the operation of the social insurance system, and the social insurance fund must enter the financial special account and accept the supervision of the financial department; On the other hand, social insurance institutions must also accept the audit supervision of the government audit department, which has set up a special social security audit institution.

To sum up, the current social insurance system in China is a policy.

In the administrative department, the management power is in the administrative department, the processing power is in the administrative department, and the supervision power is also in the administrative department. This system of official establishment, official management, official office and official supervision is a typical centralized government organization and management model.

Second, the reason and influence of centralized management mode of social insurance government in China.

The centralized management mode of China social insurance government is basically a continuation of the original mode, which is not consistent with the multi-party sharing mechanism of financial responsibility, socialized implementation mechanism and unified account combination mode selected by the basic old-age insurance system. The centralized management mode of the government continues to exist because:

First, the path dependence on the original government management system. On the one hand, social insurance belongs to public affairs, and the management of social insurance belongs to the category of superstructure, which is bound to obey the current administrative structure of our country. However, since ancient times, China has been a centralized government management, even manifested as centralized management. Although China has begun to change from an unlimited liability government to a limited liability government, the centralized management of administrative and social affairs by the government has not fundamentally changed. On the other hand, the current social insurance system is born out of the national insurance model-labor insurance system in the planned economy era, and inevitably inherits the tradition of government responsibility under the original system. The inertia of historical tradition makes the current social insurance management have a path dependence on the original centralized government management model, which inevitably bears the brand of centralized government management.

Second, the reform of social insurance system can not be separated from the guidance and promotion of strong administrative forces. The reform of China's social insurance system is a major adjustment to the original interest pattern, and the establishment of the responsibility sharing mechanism determines the re-division of the personal responsibilities of the national government, enterprises and workers in the social insurance system. In addition, China has carried out an all-round reform on the financial model, coverage and treatment level of the social insurance system. Such a huge institutional change and innovation cannot be promoted without strong administrative leadership. Therefore, China's current social insurance system adopts the centralized management mode of the government, which objectively adapts to the needs of China's social and economic reform process and social insurance system transition period.

Third, the government still bears the main financial responsibility. Although China's current social insurance system has established a mechanism for the government, enterprises and individuals to share the responsibility, on the whole, the responsibility borne by the government is still the main one. According to the practice of the current social insurance system, the payment responsibility of enterprises or employers accounts for about the national total wages on average, but many/none of them have participated in social insurance. Even those enterprises that have participated in social insurance still have the phenomenon of underpaying, missing and owing social insurance premiums. The amount of personal account funds paid by individuals for the basic old-age insurance is their own wages, but it is only reached in most parts of the country. By the end of XX, only 1 10,000 employees participated in the basic old-age insurance, just over 1 100 million employees participated in medical insurance and unemployment insurance, and even fewer employees participated in work-related injury insurance and maternity insurance. Most employees are not covered by social insurance. Therefore, as the main body of social insurance payment, enterprise units and individual workers have not really become the main body of this system. At the same time, the Chinese government still bears huge financial responsibilities of the social insurance system, including: First, the management and operation funds of social insurance administrative agencies are included in the national financial budget. The social insurance payment responsibility of employees in government agencies and institutions is actually equivalent to the social insurance payment undertaken by the employer and borne by the government. Third, financial subsidies for endowment insurance, that is, subsidies for the annual deficit of endowment insurance funds in various places, mainly old industrial bases, have become an important expenditure item of the state finance. From to, the central government subsidized the endowment insurance expenditure by RMB 100 million, RMB 100 million, RMB 100 million, RMB 100 million and RMB 100 million respectively, with a total subsidy of RMB 100 million per year. If we add some local financial subsidies to old-age insurance, the state's financial subsidies to old-age insurance will be even more. This is because workers in the planned economy era did not have any pension accumulation, and now they have entered the peak of retirement. Expenditure subsidies for other social insurance projects, such as unemployment insurance fund subsidies similar to unemployment insurance funds, basic living security fund subsidies for laid-off workers, and insufficient medical insurance funds. Take the central government's subsidies for the basic living security and reemployment of laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises as an example. From to, the central financial subsidies were billion yuan, billion yuan, billion yuan, billion yuan, billion yuan, billion yuan, billion yuan respectively, with a total subsidy of billion yuan in six years.

The above four expenditures show that China government still bears important and even significant responsibilities in the whole social insurance system. This fact determines that the government of China must assume the responsibility of effectively organizing and managing social insurance affairs.

Fourth, there is no corresponding replacement mechanism. Although the goal of China's government institutional reform is a small government and a big society, China's social organizations are underdeveloped and a large number of social affairs still rely on government management. In Germany and other developed countries, an effective tripartite consultation mechanism composed of government, management and workers has been established, but it is far from perfect in China. Due to the diversification and complexity of the economic structure, trade unions in China are facing new challenges, while employers' organizations in China are still immature. Therefore, if the government neglects the organization and management of social insurance affairs, it is impossible to find a corresponding alternative mechanism for this system at this stage.

It is precisely because of the above reasons that although China's social insurance system has changed, the color of centralized management by the government is still very strong. The practice of this social insurance organization management mode has produced the following effects:

First, the social insurance responsibility is government-oriented, and the national financial risk continues to increase. The centralized management of the government determines that the China government must bear the direct responsibility of the social insurance system, which partly eliminates the self-regulation function of the social insurance system and forces the government to bear unlimited social insurance responsibility, which will further defeat the reform goal of effectively controlling the government responsibility. At the same time, due to the increasingly complex factors affecting the social insurance system, the process of population aging is obviously accelerated, which is bound to increase the social insurance financial risks faced by the financial office of the mission, thus affecting the stability of the national finance. Therefore, under the centralized management of the government, China's social insurance system will have a greater and greater impact on the national finance, which will be overwhelmed with the arrival of the peak of population aging and the rapid growth of retirees.

Second, it has a negative impact on the healthy development of the new social insurance system. In China's current social insurance system, the most important basic old-age insurance and medical insurance all adopt the financial model of combining social pooling with personal accounts, in which personal accounts are clearly owned by workers. In the basic old-age insurance system, the funds in the personal account come entirely from the individual contributions of the workers, which belong to the individual workers, so in essence, the workers delay receiving their own wages. Obviously, there is something wrong with the centralized management of a pension that is completely paid by workers themselves and owned by individuals. In the basic medical insurance, the government's management of employee medical insurance personal accounts is basically ineffective. Therefore, the centralized management of the government conflicts with the unique financial model of China's existing basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance systems and the private nature of individual account funds, which will have a negative impact on the healthy development of the new social insurance system.

Third, it objectively limits the rights and responsibilities of employers and workers to participate in social insurance management. Because China's social insurance system is a typical system of government establishment, government management, government operation and government supervision, this centralized government management will inevitably deprive employers and workers of the relevant rights and interests as the main body of the social insurance system. Under the current organizational management mode, everything is subject to the government. The employer is only the subject of payment obligation, and has no right to claim the obligations it undertakes. The workers only passively assume the payment obligation and enjoy the relevant treatment, and have no right to ask about the management, investment and operation of the personal account fund they have paid. Therefore, the current management system of China social insurance system is not conducive to the reasonable determination and healthy development of the responsibility sharing mechanism, and it is also difficult to disperse and control the government's responsibilities.

Fourth, it has a corresponding impact on the organic and effective combination of social insurance funds and capital markets. Take the endowment insurance as an example. The current basic old-age insurance system in China is a combination of social pooling and individual accounts, in which the social pooling fund is completely composed of contributions from enterprises or employers, and the personal account fund is completely composed of contributions from employees. Social pooling funds are basically pay-as-you-go, and many areas actually need state financial subsidies; In theory, individual account funds should be accumulated year by year, formed by the payment of workers, and belong to workers themselves, but workers have no right to participate in management. The separation of government management and individual ownership leads to the complete separation of management right and ownership of this fund, which is obviously not conducive to the development of individual account funds. Under this pattern of separation of rights and interests, although the unified management of the government is relatively simple, the risk of fund depreciation is increasing because of its concentration, and the personal insecurity of workers to the fund will increase with the passage of time, and the responsibility of the government will also increase with the continuous expansion of individual account funds.

Third, the future development: multi-autonomous management mode

The above analysis shows that the centralized management of social insurance affairs by China government is indeed flawed, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the new social insurance system. In addition, the constraints of other related factors and the mistakes in the previous social insurance system reform have led to a crisis of trust in the centralized government management model to a certain extent. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider and choose the organization and management mode of China's new social insurance system.

Based on the understanding of the nature of the social insurance system and the need of its sustainable development, I don't quite agree that the future social insurance in China will continue to adopt the centralized management mode of the government, but advocate choosing a pluralistic autonomous management mode that is more conducive to the healthy and sustainable development of the social insurance system at an appropriate time. The basis of this statement is: national secretarial workers!

First of all, as the real responsible subjects of the social insurance system, employers and employees have the right to participate in the management of social insurance affairs. Management means taking responsibility, and responsibility should come from the responsible subject. Whoever is the responsible subject of social insurance should be responsible for this system and have the right to manage social insurance affairs. Social insurance pursues the principle of selectivity rather than universality, emphasizing the combination of rights and obligations. The subject of payment is the employer and the laborer, and the subject of right is the laborer. The problem to be solved is the worries of workers and the uncertain labor risks of employers, so it is a reconciliation mechanism to balance labor disputes, and reconciliation of labor relations means maintaining social stability. It can be seen that social insurance is not only different from the social assistance system that the government is responsible for, but also different from other public welfare plans supported by public finance. It is actually a mechanism to adjust the interests of both employers and employees, and cannot be simply equated with the national public welfare plan. Therefore, as the direct responsible subjects of the social insurance system, employers and employees also have the right to directly intervene in the management of social insurance affairs.

Second, the social insurance system can achieve self-development and sustainable development only through self-regulation and self-balance. Sustainable development is the goal pursued by social insurance system. Practice at home and abroad has proved that the government that undertakes social insurance responsibility cannot really achieve this goal. Only by allowing this system to achieve self-balance through self-adjustment can it develop itself. The realization of this goal requires social insurance to keep an appropriate distance from the government, with the direct participation of employers and employees as the main body of responsibility as the basic condition. If the government monopolizes the management rights of both employers and employees in social insurance affairs, it will inevitably lead to the shift of responsibility focus to the government, and the self-regulation and self-balance functions of the social insurance system will also be lost, because under the centralized management of the government, both employers and employees are not responsible for the continuity of this system.

Thirdly, the construction of a limited liability government determines that it is impossible for the China government to handle all social insurance affairs. An important change brought about by the market economy reform in China is to build a limited liability government with high efficiency in administration according to law. The huge bureaucratic system is developing towards the pattern of "small government and big society". If the China government wants to arrange social insurance affairs, it means that the social insurance management system will expand with the increase of the number of people covered, which obviously deviates from the development orientation of the limited liability government. Therefore, the limited responsibility of the government and the weakening of the governance function of the government determine that it is necessary for employers and employees directly responsible for the social insurance system and even social organizations to intervene in the management of social insurance affairs and truly assume their own responsibilities, and the government should play the last role in the social insurance system except the responsibilities of employers.

Fourthly, China's social insurance system model includes the part that belongs entirely to individual workers. For example, the personal account in the basic old-age insurance system is entirely accumulated by individual contributions of workers and belongs to individual workers. In the basic medical insurance, there are also individual accounts for employees. The accumulation in the above personal account belongs to the nature of private accumulation. If it continues to be managed by the government, it will not only be difficult to manage well, but will eventually cause dissatisfaction among individual account owners.

Fifth, the trend of social insurance system reform in various countries reveals that the inherent defects of centralized government management cannot be overcome by themselves. Judging from the development practice of social insurance system in industrialized countries, any insurance system with centralized government management can not meet the challenge of aging population, showing the irreversible law of rigid growth, and it is difficult to achieve the goals of self-regulation, self-balance and self-development. Whether Chile has reformed the public pension system into a private pension system or some countries have introduced the market mechanism into the social insurance system, it reveals from one side that the government of social insurance responsibility has come to an end.

In a word, the mode of centralized government management has been difficult to meet the needs of the self-development and sustainable development of China's social insurance system. Therefore, it may be more suitable for the future development of China's social insurance system to choose the multi-cooperative and self-management mode in which both employers and employees participate.

The multi-cooperative autonomous management mode proposed in this paper refers to the construction of a social insurance committee composed of the government, employers, workers and experts under the condition of legislative norms, which exercises the management power of social insurance affairs and undertakes the responsibility for the development of this system. The core of pluralistic autonomy management lies in autonomy, but pluralistic cooperation is the premise and foundation, and it is an autonomous management based on pluralistic cooperation. Under this management mode, the social insurance Commissioner appointed by the government should participate in the management of social insurance affairs, and he represents the interests of the government in the Committee; As for employers, representatives elected by employers' organizations should participate and represent the interests of employers; Laborers should be representatives appointed by trade unions to represent the interests of laborers; Experts participate as independent people, and they should represent rationality and fairness. This joint management mode of social insurance organizations is independent of the government, employers' organizations and trade unions, and can take into account the interests of all parties. It is the independent management of all parties concerned on the basis of cooperation, so it is a reasonable social insurance organization management model worthy of consideration.

Next to management, specific social insurance affairs can be entrusted to social organizations to organize the implementation, while relevant government functional departments formulate more specific or operable policies under the norms of relevant legislation and assume the supervisory responsibility in the operation of social insurance system. In this way, China's social insurance system will be supervised by the legislature, managed by autonomous management institutions with diversified cooperation, implemented by social organizations and supervised by government functional departments. Under such an organizational management system, the enthusiasm of all parties can be fully exerted, and the responsible subjects can truly assume their own social insurance responsibilities. At the same time, they can use the power of society and even the market to mobilize more resources to serve the sustainable development of the social insurance system. The expansion of the autonomy of employers and employees as the most important responsibility subjects of social insurance not only means the reduction of government responsibility, but also means that the social insurance system has a mechanism of self-regulation, self-balance and self-development, which lays the foundation for this system to become more open.

Fourth, create conditions for diversified cooperation and independent management of social insurance.

From centralized government management to multiple independent management, it is the development direction of the future social insurance system worthy of consideration by the China government. However, to truly realize self-management on the basis of multi-party cooperation, we need to have corresponding conditions. These conditions include:

First, we should raise the social insurance system to the level of legal norms. In other words, the legislature needs to take the Social Insurance Law as the cornerstone of the stability of this system. The National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) has incorporated the Social Insurance Law into its legislative plan. It is expected that the social insurance legislative plan, which was drafted in 2000 and has been stranded for several times, may be restarted in recent years. The promulgation of "Social Insurance Law" will provide a stable legal basis for the social insurance system to implement multiple autonomous management.

Second, it is necessary to clearly define the responsibilities of all parties according to the established principle of shared responsibility. Including the payment responsibility and management responsibility of the government, employers and individual workers. The norms for the use of social forces and market mechanisms need to be more clear and specific. At present, the reality that the responsibilities of all parties in social insurance are vague or unequal is unsustainable.

Third, mature governments, employers' organizations and trade unions are needed. Among them, the government needs to strengthen rationality and improve efficiency. While assuming due "employer" responsibility and public responsibility, we can also guide social and market forces to participate in and share social insurance affairs through corresponding fiscal and taxation policies and other administrative forces; Employers' organizations should move from excessive decentralization to alliance, and mature employers' organizations should represent employers' interests; China's trade unions should further accelerate the pace of construction, really start from the grassroots level, start from safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers, and choose their own representatives from the bottom up. Rational government, mature employers' organizations, trade union organizations and their cooperation are the guarantee for social insurance to realize diversified independent management. Appropriate withdrawal of the government and appropriate follow-up by employers' organizations and trade unions will be the basic conditions for the tripartite consultation mechanism to mature.

Fourth, developed social organizations and mature market economic system. The development of social insurance needs the help of developed social organizations, and the fund system of social insurance in China also determines that it must be organically combined with the capital market. Therefore, China needs to further improve its market economy system, including mature securities market and investment mechanism.

Fifth, decompose the existing social insurance functions of the government. That is, the social insurance affairs managed by the centralized government will be decomposed: first, the right to establish the social insurance system will be transferred from the government to the legislature. Although the administrative department can take the lead in legislative affairs, the final right to formulate the social insurance system should be given to the legislature, that is, the the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) (NPC). Second, government departments can strengthen the formulation of specific policies and the supervision function of social insurance operation, but they can entrust the power of specific management of social insurance affairs to autonomous management committees with multiple cooperation, so as to truly decentralize the responsibility of social insurance management. Third, the officially established agencies should be combined with relevant social organizations to form a networked social insurance implementation system.

The above conditions are the necessary conditions for China's social insurance to move from centralized government management to diversified cooperative independent management, but at present, these conditions are not available or not fully available. Therefore, although the implementation of multiple autonomous management is a management mode orientation that China's social insurance system should consider, it is really not something that can be completed in a short time, and conditions need to be created. Otherwise, the implementation of multi-autonomy management in an immature environment may not be as good as the transformation from centralized management by the government to multi-participation management led by the administration, and the goal of self-regulation, self-balance and self-development of the social insurance system may not be realized.

The tenth five-year key project of the National Social Science Fund.

The data in this paper are provided by the Planning and Finance Department of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

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