Last verified with Shenzhen Government sources:
Shenzhen runs employee medical insurance in two tiers, and your employer chooses which one you are on. Order No. 358, Art. 7 ↗ lets employers put staff without Shenzhen hukou on either tier. It has no separate rule for foreign nationals, and a foreigner has no Shenzhen hukou, so in practice your employer can choose either, and the difference is large. This works out what comes off your payslip at each, using the city's published 2026 contribution base and rates.
Social insurance in China has five branches — pension, medical, unemployment, work injury and maternity. This calculates medical, because that is the branch whose Shenzhen rates and base I have verified against the bureau's own notices. Your total social insurance deduction is usually larger, and pension is usually the biggest part of it, unless a social-security agreement exempts you from pension. None of the agreements in force exempts medical insurance. Do not read this figure as your whole payslip deduction.
Where these numbers come from
The rates are set out in Shenzhen Municipal Government Order No. 358 ↗, in force since 1 October 2023 (checked 11 October 2026): Tier 1 is 8% of the contribution base, split employer 6% and employee 2%; Tier 2 is 2%, split 1.5% and 0.5%. For enterprise employers, the Tier 1 employer share was restored from 5% to 6% on 1 January 2026, when the city's temporary medical-insurance cost reduction ended.
The contribution base for calendar year 2026 runs from a floor of ¥6,727 a month to a ceiling of ¥33,633, as set by the Shenzhen Medical Security Bureau's notice of 29 December 2025 ↗, which applies from 1 January to 31 December 2026 and also restores the 6% employer rate (checked 11 October 2026). Earn below the floor and you contribute on the floor; earn above the ceiling and you contribute on the ceiling, which is why a very high salary does not produce a very high medical deduction.
These figures are reissued annually. This tool carries the 2026 set — if you are reading it in a later year, check the bureau's current notice ↗ before relying on it. The 2027 figures had not been published when this page was checked on 11 October 2026.
Why the tier matters more than the money
The monthly difference looks small. What it buys does not. Tier 1 gives you a personal medical account that can be shared with immediate family; Tier 2 gives you none. On both tiers, pooled outpatient cover applies at the community health centre you choose and the hospital network it belongs to. Tier 1 also covers the outpatient department of any level-2-or-above or specialist hospital without a referral; Tier 2 needs a referral for any hospital outside that network. And Tier 2's yearly general-outpatient cap is a quarter of Tier 1's: ¥2,655 against ¥10,623 for a working employee in 2026. The full picture, including what the insurance actually reimburses and the trap in your first six months, is in the healthcare guide.
Where you can be treated is set by the bureau's treatment rules (深医保规〔2023〕7号) ↗, Arts. 6–8, in force from 1 October 2023 for five years (checked 11 October 2026). The caps come from Order No. 358, Art. 31: 6% on Tier 1 and 1.5% on Tier 2 of the Shenzhen average in-post wage of two years earlier, which the bureau's notice of 29 December 2025 ↗ sets at ¥177,057 for 2026. The yuan amounts are my own multiplication, rounded down to the yuan because the order sets a maximum; the bureau publishes the percentages, not the amounts.