Comparison study of the implementations of BURMI and UMA in Beijing， Shanghai，

Abstract

After the market economic reform in China,the planned-economy based Government Insurance Program and Labor Insurance Program were no longer feasible,replaced by the Basic Urban Labor Medical Insurance Program (BULMI) in the 1990s.Yet BULMI is not a universal social insurance program covering the whole city population,it rules out numerous urban unemployment and jobless people,the major composition of China urban poor.In a considerable period of time,those need medical assistance the most received the least policy benefits.This gap was initially fixed at 2007,after enacting the Basic Urban Resident Medical Insurance Program (BURMI) and Urban Medical Assistance Program (UMA).This article is based on a comparison study of the implementations of BURMI and UMA in Beijing,Shanghai,and Guangzhou,discussing the internal logic of the China healthcare oolicv development. Key words: Basic Urban Labor Medical Insurance; Besic Urban Resident Medical Insurance; Urban Medical Assistance; Urban Resident Minimum Living Standard; Urban Low-Income