Backgrounder: Chronology of China's health-care reform
BEIJING, April 14 -- "Do you know who are those qualified to be labeled 'rich' in today's China? Those who can afford to see the doctor."
This was a statement I happened to hear at a large
hospital in Beijing where I was a few months ago.
It was part of a casual conversation between two
patients and one that spoke of the predicament of many ordinary folk in the
country.
Due to a variety of factors, common Chinese people,
especially those in the middle- and lower-income groups, suffer from a
longstanding problem of being unable to pay for medical bills or not having
adequate access to medical care and health services.
It is not rare for an ordinary Chinese family to be
reduced to poverty overnight only because one of its members was hospitalized.
Such incidents not only worry and dishearten a number
of local officials, they also deeply affect many foreigners who hold good
impressions of the great achievements made by China since it adopted its reform
and opening-up policy in 1978.
As a matter of fact, the country's long-controversial
medical and healthcare system, as well as the endless number of hospital-patient
disputes and medical corruption cases, has always been a heated topic and focal
point for domestic media in their coverage of social issues.
At this year's sessions of the National People's
Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held last
month, the motions involving the country's medical care and healthcare system
outnumbered other motions submitted by participants, ranging from unemployment
of migrant workers to employment of graduates and environmental protection, all
having drawn attention nationwide.
The root cause of why ordinary Chinese people cannot
afford to go to hospital or have no convenient access to medical institutions,
either in cities or in the countryside, has been attributed to the fact that the
public healthcare system has long been under-funded and the ideas dominating the
reform of the country's medical system derailed.
Undoubtedly, China's large population and the
inadequacies of its medical facilities and staff have also contributed to this
problem. At the same time, there have existed thorny obstacles in the country's
efforts to improve the current healthcare and social security systems.
All these outstanding problems have contributed to
the change of the country's medical and healthcare cause, which should have been
largely public welfare-oriented, into one that is market-dependent.
The insufficient government input in the country's
healthcare system, a public welfare cause, has been a main factor accounting for
why a lot of ordinary Chinese are kept away from hospitals.
According to statistics, 96 percent of China's
hospitals are State-run. However, financial input from the government only
accounts for 7 to 8 percent of their revenues. About 90 percent of their incomes
come from their medical care services and medicine sales.
An overwhelming majority of these hospitals' expenses
including salaries and the upgrading and maintenance of medical equipment, as
well as normal operations, are subsidized by their own profits. Under these
circumstances, the role of public welfare provider that State-run hospitals
should have played has given way to their profit-pursuing impulse.
In the newly unveiled medical reform package, the
country vows to offer all of its 1.3 billion people basic medical and healthcare
coverage as a public item, a move that has been welcomed by many.
The new system aims to build a basic medical and
healthcare system covering all urban and rural residents by 2020. With an
increased government subsidy, the establishment of such a system will help
reduce the number of patients paying for their own medical bills and cover more
residents.
It will greatly ease ordinary people's difficulties
in seeing the doctor and reducing their medical costs. The developments in the
new medical and healthcare system have fully displayed the image of the Chinese
government as a responsible one that ensures all people get access to basic
medical services.
The success of the country's new healthcare package,
which is mainly aimed at covering low-income residents, grassroots communities
and rural areas, will be largely decided by how it can provide all Chinese with
equal medical services.
Along with efforts to retrieve the long-lost role of
the country's healthcare system as a provider of public welfare, the latest
package also embodies moves to explore and frame a medical system with Chinese
characteristics.
The move to allow doctors to work in more than one
medical facility is also expected to dramatically improve the quality of the
country's current basic health services.
The planned healthcare reform is by no means the
country's step back to the era of a previous planned economy. It serves as a
concrete move toward correcting the shortfalls brought about by a
market-oriented healthcare system.
There are good reasons to believe the success of the
country's latest healthcare reform will help push for the establishment of other
social security and public welfare systems, all indicators of social progress
and harmony.
The author is a researcher with the China Foundation
for International and Strategic Studies
(Source: China Daily)
China to tackle rural medical staff
shortages under 2009-2011 plan
BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China will deal with shortages of medical staff in
underdeveloped rural areas under medical system reform plans published here
Tuesday.
In the reform plan for 2009-2011, China pledged to offer
about 1.9 million training sessions for village and township medical clinics and
urban community medical institutions over the next three years.Full story
China unveils action plan for universal access to basic
health care
BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China unveiled a three-year
action plan on health care reform Tuesday, which it said would lay a solid
foundation for equitable and universal access to essential health care for all
in China.
Under the 850 billion yuan (124 billion U.S. dollar) plan
for 2009 to 2011, the government promised universal access to basic health
insurance, introduction of an essential drug system, improved primary health
care facilities, equitable access to basic public health services and pilot
reform of state-run hospitals. Full story
China steps up reforms to improve
health care for urban, rural
residents
BEIJING, April 6
(Xinhua) -- China will promote health-care reform in four areas -- public health
services, medical treatment, medical insurance and drug supply -- for both urban
and rural residents, according to a central government document released on
Monday.
The reforms will make health-care more convenient and
affordable and narrow the urban and rural gap, said the reform guidelines,
jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC)
and the State Council. Full story
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