A poor grandmother surnamed Lin living on Zhujiajian Island in Putuo district, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, recently received over 2,900 yuan ($418) in commercial medical insurance compensation after purchasing medical treatment at a local hospital.

In recent years, the Zhoushan municipal government has been striving to find new ways to eliminate poverty and ensure quality of life for people in poor households, said an official at the city's bureau of civic affairs.

Last year, the city implemented a series of policies to optimize the local medical insurance system and started to raise money to buy commercial medical insurance for locals in poor households in a bid to prevent them from bankruptcies caused by illness.

By the end of December 2019, the city had raised over 3.4 million yuan and bought commercial medical insurance for a total of 9,321 poor people.