Wuhan’s Elderly Expose Chinese Authorities’ Retaliation Against Health Reform Protests

Elderly people protest over health insurance cuts in Wuhan city, China, on Feb. 15, 2023. Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Elderly protestors in Wuhan, China have been threatened and harassed by the police there since Feb. 8, when tens of thousands of Wuhan’s retirees started huge protests against health reforms that cut their medical benefits by 70 percent.

Hao Jiayi, a Wuhan resident who participated in the protests, has been subject to police suppression and retaliation since they began. He said, “I feel the white terror is covering Wuhan—and even the whole country.”

Hao said he hoped that through The Epoch Times, his voice would let the world know the situation of elderly Chinese people under the Communist regime. “We have no right to speak, no freedom of action under the tyranny of the regime,” he said.

Authorities’ Retaliation

In a previous report, local residents revealed to The Epoch Times that Wuhan mobilized nearly all of its police forces when a large protest took place there on Feb. 15. Since then, the police have engaged in an all-out effort to retaliate against and punish the participants.

In early March, local police summoned Hao for interrogation. They demanded to check his cell phone, but he rejected their request.

Hao indicated that the police keep a detailed record of almost every protestor, and monitor their chat content and their Weixin—a Chinese-based social media platform. The police and community grid staff have pursued him every day, Hao said, just to “confirm” his whereabouts.

China’s grid staff members are the regime’s monitoring system at the grassroots of Chinese society, with members designated to monitor local residents within a set geographical range through their cell phones, TVs, and computers.

“The majority of the participants have been summoned to the police station for a statement. [We] have all been warned,” said Hao. He believes the authorities will continue the monitoring and checking just to prevent more protests from arising.

Local retirees hold a large-scale protest against the reduction of their medical insurance payments after health benefit reforms in Wuhan in China's Hubei Province, on February 15, 2023. Video screenshot

A Plundering Reform

“This medical insurance reform is plundering,” said Wuhan retiree Liang Li (pseudonym), who’s in her late 60s.

The steep cut of the health benefit left her only 160 yuan ($23.25) per month as a benefit, while she still has a hospitalization bill of more than 5,000 yuan ($726.41) to pay after her Covid infection. It will now take her several years to save up the money, she said.

When China’s communist regime issued its guide to national health insurance reform in April 2021, local governments were required to refine measures by the end of 2021, and implement them within three years.

When the Wuhan government launched the new measure on Feb. 1, the slashed benefits badly affected elderly people, who had just experienced years of COVID-19 lockdowns and infections.

Gu Guoping, a retired teacher in Shanghai, said, “What we, the elderly desire is a sense of security in old age. The Wuhan elderly are doing what they should do. I agreed with their rally.

“Retirement pensions and medical insurance are personal assets,“ he said. ”It is my labor remuneration, not the state’s welfare—nor is it given by the [Communist] Party.”

According to the Chinese medical insurance system, which was established in 1998, the funds for basic medical insurance are premiums paid by both employers, at six percent, and employees, at two percent, of the employee’s total wage. The individuals’ premiums and 30 percent of the premiums paid by the employers go to the personal accounts, and the remaining 70 percent of the premiums paid by the employers goes to the social pool program funds. Retirees are exempted from paying premiums.

However, the current reforms aim to shift accumulated savings from personal accounts to public accounts, which would result in lower payments to elderly people’s personal insurance accounts.

Personal medical insurance benefits for Wuhan retirees were thus cut from about 5 percent of the average basic pension to 2.5 percent per month.

Gu said when the government slashed the personal account payments, it was violating their rights. He said, “People should sue the government. It’s just and legal to protect their rights.”

Chinese civil rights lawyer Qin Ming (a pseudonym due to security considerations) said that without a formal legal procedure, the current reform is obviously illegal.

He said, “Whatever the means or the excuse, it cannot justify the nature of this violation.”

He further pointed out that the suppression of the elderly people’s protest is also illegal, and said he believes that the protest would affect the entire nation.

Qin suggested that the elderly continue exercising their rights and demand that the government provide a legal basis for the benefit cut. Otherwise, he said, “Sue the department that cuts the benefit for its legal violation.”

Hong Ning contributed to this report.