Special Report: NPC, CPPCC Annual Sessions 2008    

   BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) - The Chinese government will solicit opinions from the general public to seek a solution to heal a health care system that has benefited hospitals, drug makers and dealers but left many low-income earners complaining in pain.

    Premier Wen Jiabao told nearly 3,000 lawmakers on Wednesday that a long-awaited health care reform scheme will soon be publicized to solicit public opinions, but he did not specify the timetable.

    "We must resolutely carry out this reform to provide everyone with access to basic medical and health services," Wen said in his government work report delivered at the annual full session of the National People's Congress, the top legislature.

    The central government will allocate 83.2 billion yuan (about 11.7 billion U.S. dollars) this year to support the reform and development of the health care sector, an increase of 16.7 billion yuan (about 2.4 billion U.S. dollars) over last year, with the focus of spending on facilities at the urban community and village level, Wen said.

    Health care was ranked fifth among the 16 "topics of most concern" Chinese netizens hoped the parliament session would address, according to online surveys by several leading Chinese websites including xinhuanet.com and sina.com.

    A latest survey by the National Bureau of Statistics on "unsafe" factors upsetting the public, rising medical cost has become the top concern among Chinese people.

    A cartoon picture on the Internet shows vividly the anxiety of many people: an old couple were running desperately before a ferocious lion named Hospital, with the grandpa urging his wife: "Come on! Exercise or in debts".

    Also frequently cited on the Internet was a doggerel: Decades of toil, destitute when ill.

    A retired worker in Beijing was reportedly diagnosed as esophageal cancer, which was a bolt in the blue for his family, both emotionally and fiscally.

    "My son and daughter are both in the countryside and their kids are young, while the factory I used to work in was bankrupt. After spending out all my savings, I have borrowed some ten thousand yuan from my brothers," said 64-year-old Yang Hongsheng.

    While people like Yang linger outside hospitals, life of doctors are worlds apart.

    As county hospitals and village clinics, lack of fund, equipment and talents, are on the verge of closing down, profit-driven big hospitals in cities stunned their patients with high prices.

    It is reported that 80 percent of the medical resources are gathered in big cities.

    "To gain more profit, some doctors deliberately prescribe expensive drugs for the patients, no matter they are necessary or not," said Feng Shiliang, head of the Diabetes Medical Center of the northeastern Liaoning Province and an NPC deputy.

    The complaints and calls for reform have aroused attention from the government.

    China established a new rural cooperative medicare system in 2003, more than two decades after an old cooperative fund program on medical expense collapsed in the countryside.

    A farmer will be covered by the new umbrella by paying an amount of money, usually 10 yuan a year, while the state, provincial, municipal and county governments jointly contribute 40yuan for the cooperative fund.

    The scheme has covered 730 million farmers, or 86 percent of the total, by the end of last year, Vice Premier Wu Yi told a national conference in mid-February.

    But there are still 14 percent of the farmers who have not been covered and have to "endure the ailment and delay the serious disease", as they say themselves.

    Their situation is aggravated by soaring medical expenditures, which has triggered complaints from urban citizens, like Yang Hongsheng in Beijing, as well.

    The government work report by Wen, however, may have offered good news to urban low-income earners like Yang.

    The premier vowed in his report to expand the basic medical insurance program to cover more urban workers, while fully implementing the new cooperative medical care system in all rural areas this year.

    Wen also pledged to improve the rural medical service network at county, township and village levels and hold down surging drug prices while ensuring supply and safety.

    The measures were hailed by lawmakers and political advisors who are in Beijing for their annual full sessions.

    "From listening to voices of the medical sector to soliciting opinions of the common people, the government is attaching more importance to wishes of the grassroots," said Zhong Nanshan, a renowned medical expert and deputy to the 11th NPC.

    Song Yayang, manager of a company in the southern Guangdong Province and lawmaker who has paid constant attention to health care in rural areas, saw behind the measures that public welfare is becoming a major area attracting funds from China's national treasury.

    Many people put forward suggestions for the long-awaited healthcare reform. Turning public hospitals into a commonweal from money-making machines tops all the reform ideas raised by netizens in the online surveys at xinhuanet.com and sina.com.

    According to NPC deputy Feng Shiliang from Liaoning Province, 93 percent of the country's hospitals are public ones. He said increasing governments' fund in the hospitals would be "killing two birds with one stone".

    "By de-commercializing hospitals, we could prevent doctors from squeezing their patients for profit," he said. "Then the drug factories no longer have to pay brokerage to hospitals and would stop pushing up drug prices crazily."

    His view was shared by professor Zhong Nanshan. "But the change would be a long process, as currently, the government only foot bill for eight to ten percent of the expenditures in state-owned hospitals."

    Wang Xudong, a professor with the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a lawmaker, suggested establishment of charity hospitals.

    "They could be a supplement to public hospitals," he said.