Shanghai's supplementary commercial medical insurance is expected to cater to diversified medical demand and cover more innovative treatments, with additional insurance plans to be available for local residents in the near future.

The plan announced on Monday strives to optimize supplementary commercial policies and relevant rules in a bid to set up a multi-layered medical insurance to serve as an extension to the basic city-wide policy.

The new measures would engage joint efforts by several local authorities, including the Shanghai Health Care Security Administration, the Shanghai Health Commission, the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Shanghai Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau and the Shanghai Big Data Center.

The new move will also serve as a boost for pharmaceutical companies to encourage more research efforts to cater to unmet clinical demand.

By including more innovative medicines into these new insurance plans, insurers could use new treatment options while medical service providers and drug makers can also make their treatment available at the clinical level.

Shanghai's local version of the budget commercial supplementary medical insurance "Huhuibao" has enrolled 6 million insurers this year since it was first introduced in 2021.

Professor Chen Wen of the Fudan University School of Public Health pointed out that the new measures aimed at ensuring a balance between wide coverage and efficiency by offering additional insurance options for those willing to pay a premium outside of the basic insurance plans.

"It's a good opportunity to encourage pharma and medical device firms to put more efforts into innovation and could also help optimize the overall medical insurance scheme," he added.