BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council, or Cabinet, passed a long-awaited medical reform plan which promised to spend 850 billion yuan (123 billion U.S. dollars) by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the country's 1.3 billion population.

The plan was studied and passed at Wednesday's executive meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

According to the plan, authorities would take measures within three years to provide basic medical security to all Chinese in urban and rural areas, improve the quality of medical services, and make medical services more accessible and affordable for ordinary people.