COVID-19 Vaccine Costs Fully Covered by Medical Insurance Funds and National Finance

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) has always put people and their well-being first. In February 2021, China officially launched the initiative of COVID-19 vaccines for residents free of charge.

Currently, China has administered 3.2 billion doses of vaccines. The procurement and vaccination costs till now are over RMB 120 billion and have been mainly borne by the medical insurance funds and public funds.

At the beginning, when there was insufficient production capacity, NHSA played the role of a negotiator with domestic manufacturers and reduced the purchase price of inactivated vaccines to no more than RMB 90 per dose in the first round of negotiation, which was lower than the international prices. The negotiated pricing has continued its downward trend, first dropping to RMB 40 per dose and then to RMB 20, and is expected to be much lower in the future.