A deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) from northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has dedicated herself to promoting the cause of building China's long-term elderly care system and nursing staff training mechanism during her service in the nursing field over the past more than 20 years.
Since being elected as a NPC deputy in 2023, Yu Yang, also deputy director of the Nursing Department at the First Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical College, has frequently spent her spare time communicating with patients' families and medical staff at the hospital where he works, in order to discover practical problems.
Last year at the Two Sessions, Yu's suggestion to formulate a long-term care insurance system received a timely response from the National Healthcare Security Administration, which played a role in promoting and improving the relevant system.
This year, Yu said, she will continue to focus on the imperative issues that need to be addressed in promoting the long-term care insurance system, improving the care system, and expanding service supply, and she visited some elderly care institutions to solicit opinions and suggestions.
Qiqihar is a pilot city for long-term care insurance. As of the end of last year, more than 3.48 million people had been covered by long-term care insurance, effectively reducing the economic burden of care on families of disabled individuals.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan for national socioeconomic development in the 2026-2030 period stated that long-term care insurance should be promoted and the care system for disabled and cognitively impaired elderly people should be improved. The Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2025 also listed the promotion of the long-term care insurance system as one of the key tasks for 2026.
The "Two Sessions" refer to the annual session of the NPC, China's national legislature, and that of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's national political advisory body. The "Two Sessions" are regularly held each year to review the government work in the last year and finalize the country's priorities for the year ahead.
