Shanghai adds ART services to medical insurance scheme amid China’s population woes
- Couples in Shanghai seeking to have a baby via 12 types of assisted reproductive technology (ART) could lower their costs by up to 70 per cent
Facing the lowest birth rate in China, Shanghai has included fertility services for couples under its medical insurance scheme from the start of June.
Couples in the city seeking to have a baby via 12 types of assisted reproductive technology could lower their medical costs by up to 70 per cent due to the expanded coverage amid efforts to encourage births, according to a municipal government directive issued late last month.
The city of nearly 25 million people announced a record low total fertility rate of 0.6 in 2023, meaning that on average, each woman had just 0.6 children during her reproductive life.
A fertility rate of 2.1 is known as the replacement rate, and is generally regarded as necessary to guarantee a broadly stable population.
The figure from Shanghai, the first city in mainland China to enter the ageing society when its share of residents aged 65 and above topped 14 per cent in 2017, is well below that for South Korea, a country known as having the world’s lowest fertility rate of 0.72 last year.
Even if the fertility rate rises, there will still be fewer babies because we’re having a decreasing number of women at childbearing age
China’s total fertility rate last year was not disclosed by authorities, but estimated by analysts to be about one.