| The characteristic of the Endowment Insurance is that social security programs were funded by the State and managed separately by units. As a security country, the People's Republic of China has attached great importance to the work of social security since the early years after its founding in 1949. In the 1950s, China established a social security system meeting the requirement of the country's system of a centrally planned economy. Along with the shift of China's economic system from the pattern of centrally planned economy to the pattern of a socialist market economy over recent years, the traditional social security system formed under the system of a centrally planned economy has increasingly shown its shortcomings: Firstly, the traditional social security system was applied to a small social group only, mainly covering State-run units. It could not meet the needs of common development of diverse sectors of the economy. Neither was it beneficial to the flow of labor among units of different ownership and to fair competition between State-run enterprise and other types of economic organization. Secondly, the sources of funding for the traditional social security system were exclusively from the State and units concerned, and workers themselves did not have to pay for their insurance. Consequently, such a system made workers unaware of the necessity to pay for social security for themselves, and resulted in serious waste of resources of social security. Thirdly, enterprises were under the responsibility for the management and services of social security, forming a system that enterprises had to operate services that were actually the responsibility of society. This affected enterprises concentrating their resources on production and operation. So, when enterprises turned from mere appendages to government institutions to market subjects that are responsible for their own profits or losses and that manage their business on their own, and when they made losses, they would be unable to provide basic treatment of social security for their workers. Consequently, State-run enterprises all had a large number of redundant personnel, making it difficult for their structure of labor force to meet the requirement of the reform of the industrial structure, the technical structure and the structure of ownership. The reform of the social security system –which is related to the life of hundreds of millions of people and the redistribution of interests between the State, enterprises and workers –has become a focal issue concerned about by all workers of life. Presently, the general public has a consensus on the complexity and importance of this reform. Therefore, to establish a social security system that will suit the system of a socialist market economy in China has become a very important and also imperative task concerning reform, development and the general situation of stability in the country.The central government has put forward a target for the reform of the social security system for the present stage: to establish a complete social security system by the end of this century with multiple sources of funding that provides for the establishment of a multiplayer insurance system and balance between rights and obligations, and whose management and services are socialized, with the emphasis on the reform of the social insurance system. Through many years of exploration, China has initially formed a theoretical framework of the national social security system that will cover social relief, social welfare and compensation programs funded by the State finance; social insurance for old age, medical care, etc that will be compulsory under national legislation; corporate supplementary insurance, personal savings insurance and mutual insurance supported by the State that can be voluntarily participated in by employers and workers; and the development of commercial insurance as a supplement to social insurance. The China central government breakthrough progress has been made in the reform of the soci...
|
PDF Full Text Request