Coinsurance plan for patients' guardians

A coinsurance mechanism should be set for the guardianship of patients with severe mental disorders to relieve the economic burden of their families and give enough compensation to victims if patients cause trouble, two political advisers said in a proposal.

The proposal is led by local lawyer and CPPCC member Qiu Suo. She told Shanghai Daily that there had been several reports in recent years of patients with severe mental disorders attacking others. 

"The thinking of those with severe mental disorders is different from ordinary people. After they are irritated by others or have hallucinations or delusions, it's easier for some of them to be violent and injure or kill people," Qiu said. "In such attacks, many of the victims are women and children.”

By the end of 2016, there were 5.4 million registered patients with severe mental disorders in China and 75 percent of them with schizophrenia, according to the proposal.

At the end of 2018, Shanghai had 150,000 such patients.

Since this group had no idea about what they were doing and could not control their acts of violence, they were free from criminal liability under the law.

Meanwhile, victims' families, who faced great burdens such as large medical fees, could not get the compensation they deserves.

Expressing sympathy for these families, Qiu suggested establishing a coinsurance system on the guardianship of patients with mental disorders with multiple parties participating.

Under such a system, after a patient's guardian insured the patient, if the patient caused trouble, the insurer would compensate the victim on behalf of the guardian.

The guardian would face less economic burden while victims could get compensation.

Currently, there are two major methods of coinsurance. One is that the city or district make a unified insurance plan and the other is that the residential community pay the insurance and set their own plan.

The proposal suggests the former unified method had more advantages in cutting costs and raising efficiency. It would also be easier for the government to supervise and manage it.