Beijing to cover IVF, fertility treatments to boost China’s birth rate: Report

China’s capital Beijing will extend medical insurance coverage to a slew of assisted reproduction services as the country tries to avert a demographic crisis that threatens long-term consequences for the economy.

Starting July 1, services ranging from sperm optimization to in-vitro fertilization will be reimbursed in 16 medical facilities, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau. The capital is the first major city in China to extend insurance coverage.

The move will reduce the often substantial financial burden of the services and is part of a broader plan to boost the national birth rate after China saw its population shrink for the first time in six decades last year. The slump came despite a gradual relaxation of rules that, for decades, restricted families to just one child as factors like the high cost of raising kids to pregnancy-related discrimination in workplaces see more people delay their family plans or choose not to have children.

China, which probably ceded its title as most-populous country to India, has seen the drop-off come much faster than previously expected. Its working-age population has been shrinking for years, and the growing cohort of aging citizens could act as a brake on growth that may see the economy struggle to overtake the US in size.

While the central government has urged citizens to have more children, so far the rollout of policies to boost births have depended on which cities can afford them.

Officials at the National Healthcare Security Administration, which oversees the 4.3 trillion yuan ($600 billion) state medical insurance fund that covers more than 95% of China’s 1.4 billion people, have said local governments must study whether extending coverage will be feasible for local insurance funds, which raise money from local employee contributions.

The southern economic powerhouse of Shenzhen is working on plans to subsidize parents until their children turn three, while other cities dotted across China have also announced nominal childcare subsidies. Meanwhile, the province of Henan said in February that the province is not yet capable of extending coverage to such assisted reproduction services.