Employment & Professional Development

Hi Greg,

I have read the section that universities are not legally required to provide health insurance, but I'd just like clarification on an issue I have.

I have the standard SAFEA contract and an additional appendix. In the appendix, there is a clause that states 'Party A will provide Party B with Medical Insurance and Accident Insurance'. Previously the university had been buying commercial insurance for me and I assumed this was what my contract was referring to.

This year they stopped buying commercial insurance. I'm disputing this, and they argue that as all state-owned institutions provide free medical care for their workers (公费医疗）, this satisfies the clause in my appendix. This is the first I've heard about it and I can't find any information in English on this issue, so I was wondering if you knew anything about it and whether this is a legitimate argument for not providing commercial health insurance.

Under the old system, public schools and universities were only required to supply their foreign teachers with accidental injury insurance. Under the new system, schools must include their foreign employees under China’s Social Insurance Program (see Foreigner Participation in China’s Social Insurance System Now Mandatory).

It remains to be seen exactly how schools throughout China will implement this policy. What we do already know is that schools appear to have the right to pass their costs back to the teachers. It is very possible that universities affiliated with teaching hospitals can simply include their foreign teachers in the group plan (that is, you would only be covered for medical treatment at their one participating hospital).

At no time under the old system were universities ever obligated to purchase 3rd party medical insurance and, especially under the new system, they are only obligated to subscribe their foreign teachers as temporary members of the Social Insurance Program (and they may deduct the cost of that insurance from the foreign teacher’s salary).

As we understand it, in terms of dollars and cents, most foreign teachers will end up losing money under the new system without gaining anything of value in return.