Hainan's 15th Five-Year Medical Insurance Plan Adds a Dedicated Section on International Services

The General Office of the Hainan Provincial People's Government has issued the province's 15th Five-Year Plan for Medical Insurance (Qiong Fu Ban [2026] No. 59), covering 2026 to 2030. In the chapter on public medical insurance services, the plan sets aside Article 34 as a standalone item titled "Building an international medical insurance service system", gathering what had previously been scattered provisions into one task.

What Article 34 says

The article covers four groups of measures:

1. Enrolment and administration for foreign nationals — implementing enrolment policy for foreign nationals, streamlining registration, contribution payment and out-of-area treatment procedures, and exploring a medical insurance service mechanism suited to cross-border movement of people within the free trade port.
2. Pricing of premium and international medical services — while safeguarding basic medical services, standardising the management of special (premium) services at public medical institutions and exploring a pricing management mechanism for special and international medical services.
3. Commercial insurance coverage and cross-border settlement — supporting inclusive commercial products such as "Hui Qiong Bao" and "Lecheng Special Drug Insurance" in covering eligible foreign nationals in Hainan; implementing national arrangements for cross-border settlement of international commercial insurance and steadily expanding the scope of direct settlement; encouraging insurers to develop cross-border medical insurance products suited to foreign nationals and to make cross-border settlement more convenient.
4. Cross-border medical data — exploring orderly cross-border flow of medical data, subject to legal compliance and data security.

Related provisions elsewhere in the plan

Several other sections touch on care for foreign patients, though they are spread across the document:

• Commercial medical insurance: supporting products that cover disease prevention, health management, special medical services and cross-border care, and steadily expanding one-stop settlement between basic medical insurance and commercial insurance.
• Bo'ao Lecheng pilot zone: using real-world data to support medical insurance access for innovative drugs and devices, taking real-world data generated from Lecheng's specially permitted drugs as an important reference for national reimbursement list adjustments, and supporting Lecheng in piloting new commercial insurance products tailored to specially permitted drugs and high-end medical services.
• 2035 outlook: a fully established free trade port medical insurance system, building on a progressively improved international medical insurance service and management system.

What this means for international patients

This plan governs how payment works, not whether patients may enter. For foreign nationals planning to seek care or stay long-term in Hainan, three directions are worth watching as implementation proceeds:

1. Whether the scope of direct settlement with international commercial insurers expands — the wording is "steadily expand", a directional statement; the actual hospital list and settlement methods will come from later implementing documents.
2. Whether a pricing mechanism for special and international medical services is issued — the plan proposes to "explore a pricing management mechanism", which would put price formation at public hospitals' international departments onto a regulated footing.
3. Whether cross-border insurance products reach the market — the plan encourages insurers to develop products for foreign nationals and supports inclusive products covering eligible foreign nationals in Hainan.

All three remain at the stage of "proposed in the plan, detailed rules pending". Practical availability still needs to be confirmed against what hospitals and insurers actually offer.

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Note on figures and medical information. The provisions quoted here come from the full text of the Hainan 15th Five-Year Plan for Medical Insurance, published as an attachment to Qiong Fu Ban [2026] No. 59 on the Hainan provincial government portal. The plan states policy direction and does not constitute a commitment regarding any individual's eligibility, reimbursement ratio, settlement method or medical outcome; implementation is subject to detailed rules issued later by the competent authorities. Nothing on this site is medical advice — diagnosis and treatment decisions are made by the treating hospital's physicians. To request a correction or removal, email market@medtourlink.com.