The Legal Affairs Commission believes that the improper restrictions on the application of maternity insurance benefits are inconsistent with the relevant provisions of the Constitution and laws
In some places, the regulations on setting thresholds for receiving maternity insurance have been suspended
□ Our reporter Zhu Ningning
Recently, Liang Hongxia, an associate professor at the School of Administrative Law of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, received a call from the staff of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the filing and review of regulations, regarding the preconditions for applying for maternity insurance benefits and improper restrictions on the local regulations she mentioned earlier. The recommendations of the review of reproductive women's rights were communicated orally.
It was pointed out in the communication that with the continuous adjustment of the national fertility policy, the restrictive provisions made by some laws, regulations and normative documents on the enjoyment of maternity insurance benefits are no longer suitable for the Party Central Committee's decision-making and deployment on optimizing the fertility policy and the state's promotion of the reform of the active fertility policy. . The requirements for improving the maternity insurance payment system are inconsistent with the spirit of the relevant provisions of the Constitution and laws.
In recent years, many experts, scholars and citizens have put forward suggestions for reviewing some local regulations and rules that require the application of maternity insurance benefits to provide proof materials such as "marriage certificate" and "maternity service certificate", and believe that the relevant regulations are not in line with the decision of the Party Central Committee The spirit of deployment and the direction of major national reforms are inconsistent with the spirit of the relevant provisions of the higher law, and it is recommended to review and correct.
“Maternity insurance is a social policy of the state to provide certain living security and material assistance and share the cost of childbirth to employees during pregnancy and childbirth when they lose or temporarily lose their ability to work and labor opportunities. The right to health and the right to labor should be valued and guaranteed.” Liang Ying, director of the Legal Affairs Commission’s Regulations Filing Review Office of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, said that the Constitution and laws advocate age-appropriate marriage and childbirth, and also ensure that women can obtain material from the state and society in the event of childbirth right to help.
At the same time, under the background of the national adjustment of family planning policy, expanding the coverage of national maternity insurance will help to create a more harmonious and friendly social environment, which is consistent with the spirit of the Party Central Committee's decision-making and deployment and the orientation of the core socialist values.
The Legal Affairs Commission has issued a letter requesting relevant parties to adjust and improve relevant regulations in a timely manner to eliminate improper restrictions on the enjoyment of maternity insurance benefits.
It is worth noting that this review case is also another classic case in which the Legal Affairs Commission has implemented the Party Central Committee's decision-making and deployment on optimizing the fertility policy and actively responded to the major adjustments to the national population development policy through the filing review system in recent years.
Previously, the Legislative Affairs Commission had stopped the provisions of local regulations regarding "dismissal after birth" and "dismissal after birth".
Restriction of some pregnant women to receive maternity insurance raises doubts
In 2021, when Liang Hongxia attended an academic conference, she noticed a case about an unmarried mother who was blocked from receiving maternity insurance benefits.
Liang Hongxia's research fields are constitutional law, human rights law, and she is a woman, which makes her particularly concerned about the equal legal protection of women's rights.
So why are some women blocked from receiving maternity insurance benefits?
Liang Hongxia began to consult laws, administrative regulations, local regulations, rules, etc., and studied many similar cases.
She found that the current national laws do not set obstacles for women who give birth to maternity insurance, and there are no direct prohibitive clauses in local regulations, but in some regions, local regulations and rules list "marriage certificate" as a grant Necessary prerequisites for maternity insurance benefits.
This means that only married women can enjoy maternity insurance benefits.
Analyzing the reasons, Liang Hongxia believes that the main reason is that the implementation of the basic national policy of family planning is generally linked to birth insurance. The function of birth insurance is not only positioned to protect the rights of pregnant women and their fetuses, but also to realize family planning.
Since the relevant fertility protection measures stipulated in the Population and Family Planning Law are all aimed at couples, some women do not have the legal subject qualifications of the Population and Family Planning Law, and it is difficult to legally determine the number of children to be born, which is not conducive to the family planning policy. Therefore, some localities have imposed certain restrictions on the implementation of the maternity insurance system.
"The original intention of maternity insurance is to protect maternity, and it should provide equal protection to all women who give birth." Liang Hongxia believes that my country's constitution stipulates that citizens are equal before the law.
For maternity insurance, the Labor Law, the Social Insurance Law, the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests and other laws do not distinguish between married women and unmarried women.
In some places, the requirement to provide birth certificate or marriage certificate to obtain birth insurance does not conform to the principle of equal protection. At the same time, birth insurance is particularly important for the economic protection of women and fetuses.
As a result, she made a motion to correct the provisions in local normative documents restricting some women's enjoyment of maternity insurance by filing a filing review.
In her view, removing these restrictions from the legislation is the most fundamental measure.
In May 2022, Liang Hongxia submitted a review proposal to the Legislative Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, arguing that local regulations and other normative documents make marriage a precondition for applying for maternity insurance, which belongs to an improperly restricted female group's right to obtain maternity insurance. , does not conform to the principle of equal protection, and is inconsistent with the spirit of the relevant provisions of the higher law, and should be revised.
There is no threshold for the enjoyment of benefits at the national level
In recent years, with the ever-changing population situation in my country, the national fertility policy has been adjusted many times.
In December 2015, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Decision on Implementing the Comprehensive Two-Child Policy, Reforming and Improving the Administration of Family Planning Services", and began to implement the comprehensive two-child policy.
In June 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Optimizing the Birth Policy to Promote the Long-term Balanced Development of the Population", implementing the three-child birth policy and supporting measures, and further clarified that "social maintenance fees will be cancelled, and relevant penalties will be cleaned up and abolished. It is stipulated that household registration, school enrollment, employment, etc. will be completely decoupled from personal fertility status.”
On August 16, 2022, 17 departments including the National Health and Medical Commission jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Improving and Implementing Active Maternity Support Measures", proposing that "the state shall standardize and formulate and improve maternity insurance maternity allowance payment policies, and strengthen maternity insurance policies. Insured female employees' maternity medical expenses, maternity allowances, etc., to ensure the safety of maternity insurance funds" "Where conditions permit, flexible employees who participate in basic medical insurance for employees can be explored to participate in maternity insurance at the same time."
In accordance with the spirit of the central government, relevant departments actively promote the decoupling of employee maternity insurance from the national maternity policy.
The "Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Combined Implementation of Maternity Insurance and Employee Basic Medical Insurance" issued by the State Council in 2019 and the "National Medical Security Administration Government Service Items List" issued by the National Medical Security Administration in 2020 clearly stipulate that maternity insurance benefits are approved for payment. Only need to provide medical insurance electronic certificate or valid ID or social security card, hospital bills, fee list, diagnosis certificate (or medical record data), no "marriage certificate", "reproductive service certificate" and other related materials are required.
Not long ago, in response to the threshold and controversy of maternity insurance, Liu Juan, deputy director of the Department of Treatment and Security of the National Medical Insurance Administration, publicly responded at a press conference of the National Health and Health Commission, saying that regarding the threshold for receiving maternity allowances, some places may provide maternity benefits. The requirements for service-related materials, but as long as the payment responsibility of maternity insurance is fulfilled, there is no threshold for the enjoyment of benefits at the national level, and in the service list, the relevant materials required to enjoy maternity insurance maternity allowance are not required. "Marriage Certificate" etc.
Re-evaluate and define the policy function of maternity insurance system
"In an industrialized society, the cost of medical expenses and occupational costs brought about by childbirth is very high." Lou Yu, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out that maternity insurance assumes the function of solving the medical expenses of female employees during childbirth and compensation for lost wages during vacation.
The purpose of establishing maternity insurance is to solve the worries of working-age workers through socialized financing.
According to Lou Yu, my country's maternity insurance system began with the "Labor Insurance Regulations of the People's Republic of China" promulgated in 1951, but subject to the level of economic and social development at that time, maternity insurance benefits were low.
In 1994, the former Ministry of Labor issued the "Trial Measures for Maternity Insurance for Enterprise Employees". Since then, a maternity insurance system featuring unilateral payment by enterprises, prefectural and municipal overall planning, and a combination of maternity allowances and medical expenses has been gradually established.
In 2010, the Social Insurance Law formally established the legal status of the maternity insurance system in my country's social insurance system.
By the end of 2019, all regions in my country have realized the combined implementation of maternity insurance and basic medical insurance for employees.
"Family planning is the basic national policy of our country, and the arrangement of the maternity insurance system must take into account the requirements of family planning." Lou Yu believes that whether it is stipulated that only married employees can obtain maternity insurance benefits, or the "One-Child Preferential Treatment Certificate" is stipulated. Only male spouses can enjoy maternity leave. These structural systems linked to the national family planning policy all play the role of policy incentives and guidance.
This institutional arrangement has a specific rationality in a specific historical period.
Lou Yu pointed out that under the background of my country's impending negative population growth, it is necessary to build a complete set of fertility-friendly systems.
Among them, maternity insurance is an important part, and its policy function should be re-evaluated and defined.
"Expanding the expenditure of maternity insurance funds may have little effect on relieving population pressure, and its function of equal rights protection may be more prominent. Reforming the maternity insurance system mainly reflects the encouragement and advocacy of maternity behavior by the state and society." At present, various regions have included the illegitimate childbirth expenses and maternity leave wages of insured employees into the payment scope of the fund, and flexible employment personnel have also been included in the insurance coverage. These measures are in line with the development of the times and should be advocated.