BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's new healthcare reform plan, which aims
to provide universal medical service to 1.3 billion people, has triggered
nationwide debate since it was publicized on Tuesday morning.
News articles on healthcare reform showed up in major newspapers and online
forums were swarmed with netizens eager to express their opinion.
More than 900 comments were left on the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) website in less than two days.
Suggestions, complaints and criticisms kept pouring into the site, which
the Chinese authorities set up to solicit opinions on the long-awaited reform
plan.
"I suggest leaders pay more attention to medical services in rural areas,"
Cao Pengfei wrote. "It would cost more than a 1,000 yuan (146 U.S. dollars) for
a minor illness in my county," added the Shandong Province resident.
"I have no stable job and travel from place to place for work. I was
wondering how people like me could be covered by medical insurance?" Ma
Shengcheng asked.
Many proposed long lists of suggestions. Xia Shaochun wrote thousands of
words, analyzing the problems of the current insurance system and government
funding.
Opinions of health experts were seen in newspapers and magazines. Besides
commenting on the plan itself, many agreed the government had taken an
unprecedented open attitude towards the reform.
Healthcare reform expert Gu Xin told the China Youth Daily that scholars in
the past were often asked to prove the validity and thinking behind a government
decision after it was made.
"But as for the healthcare reform plan, scholars really participated in
it," he said. "The government asked for our opinions and paid great attention
before the plan was drafted."
Growing public criticism of soaring medical fees, a lack of access to
affordable medical services, poor doctor-patient relationships and low medical
insurance coverage compelled the government to launch the new round of reforms.
China first started reforming healthcare in 1992 to abolish a system under
which the government covered more than 90 percent of expenses.
The country then gradually switched to a market-oriented medical system.
However, soaring medical costs plunged many rural and urban Chinese into
poverty.
In the new plan, the government promised to set up a "safe, effective,
convenient and affordable" healthcare system that would cover all urban and
rural residents by 2020.
The draft lists five priorities: speeding up the establishment of a
universal healthcare system, setting up a basic drug system, improving the
grassroots health service network, providing equal public health service to
rural and urban residents and pushing forward reform trials in state-run
hospitals.
Healthcare reform debates have been going on in China for years. In 2006,
the State Council, the country's Cabinet, set up a joint-working team consisting
of experts from 16 departments to create a reform plan.
An official with the team told Xinhua the group had conducted numerous
seminars and undertook field investigations in more than 20 provinces,
municipalities and autonomous regions over the past two years.
It also entrusted nine domestic and overseas organizations, including the
World Health Organization, to conduct independent research. The submitted
opinions were included in the draft.
In early 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission started a
website, inviting public opinion on medical reform. The commission received
1,500 suggestions and 600 letters in less than six months.
In April, Premier Wen Jiabao held two symposiums in Zhongnanhai, the
government headquarters in downtown Beijing, to discuss the issue with
representatives from the medical field, companies, migrants and farm workers,
among others.
"Healthcare reform is a tough problem worldwide," Peking University
professor Li Ling said. "To mobilize the whole nation to join the debate is an
unprecedented move of the Chinese government, which ensures that the decision
could be made in a prudent, scientific and democratic way."
