In order to bring the HPF into full play, managers must enhance supervision over the use of the fund and upgrade services.

Zhi Feng (www.xinhuanet.com): "Allowing the HPF to be used for disease treatment" is an emergency measure and should not be counted on as a safety net for people's lives. If there is not reasonable design, sound management and healthy operation, new loopholes might emerge causing new chaos. So, if medical treatment can turn to the HPF for help, then can people borrow money from health insurance and pension funds to meet their housing demand?

In addition, those who cannot afford medical treatment are always the people who are unable to pay for social security insurance, including the HPF.

Totally acceptable

Hong Xinliang (Qianjiang Evening News): China started to establish the HPF in 1992 and now its use has been institutionalized and standardized. Allowing the use of the HPF for treatment of major diseases reflects policymakers' concern for people's well being.

The fact is the utilization ratio of the HPF is only 50 to 60 percent. A substantial amount of personal assets have been lying idle with no increase in value. Worse still, a portion of the fund might have been embezzled by corrupt officials.

Confronted with "life" or "housing" options, who will choose housing over life? It would be such a pity if personal HPF deposits cannot be withdrawn to save lives.

Tang Jun (Guangzhou Daily): There is no reason to doubt money in an individual HPF account is compulsory personal savings for housing purchases as enshrined in state regulations. But the social security system should be an integrated network where policies guiding all related aspects are interlinked. In modern society, social and economic risks and pressure on people and their families have orders of priorities, where the threat of fatal diseases is on top of the list.

Disease is a risk that people face from the day they were born and seriousness of a disease is hard to anticipate. A fatal disease could result in loss of working capability, hence leading to cutoff of income...and family members having to shoulder a large amount of medical treatment expenses.

So far, only one quarter of employees have been successful in withdrawing HPF funding. With rising inflation, the rest of the HPF money is gradually losing value and this is a loss of people's assets.

Medical insurance in China is not fully up to expectations. Even with insurance, people have to pay 30-40 percent of the medical costs. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show the average monthly disposable income of urban residents in the first half of 2009 was less than 1,500 yuan ($219), while cash income of farmers was less than 500 yuan ($73). As the medical insurance does not cover the whole cost, families are forced to gather money by any means for treatment.

One arm of the balance is the idle HPF deposits, while the other is skyrocketing medical treatment expenses. Which weighs more? To stubbornly hold on to the HPF doctrine or to let someone die? The former runs counter to a people-oriented society.

Wang Yan'an (The Economic Observer): Guangxi's new regulations on the use of the HPF say clearly that the fund can be used for treating "major diseases," but not all diseases. In the current situation, "major diseases" do not mean only risk to life, but also huge treatment expenses. When a family cannot afford the expenses, there is nothing wrong in turning to the HPF for help, and that might be able to save a life.

Taking a historical perspective, the adjustment is a return to the nature of HPF.

The Chinese HPF system was developed along the lines of Singapore's practice. In Singapore, the HPF is called the central provident fund, which is a personal pension account. The Singaporean Government later on allowed depositors to use the fund to buy houses, and eventually allowed them to treat major diseases.

In the present housing purchase mania, not everyone can afford a house. But when faced with a deadly illness, people should do whatever they can to save lives.

Furthermore, the HPF money is managed under personal accounts like bank savings. Illegal schemes such as insurance fraud are unlikely. The adjustment makes it possible to use the fund when people need it most.

The only thing the government should do is to identify a threshold for "major diseases." There are no technical obstacles nowadays.