Universal health care for China?

Oriental Morning Post
April 7, 2009

Most of today's newspapers examine China's health care reforms: A list of proposals compiled by the State Council was released yesterday. The proposed reforms are expected to take effect this year.

It is hoped that the new measures will be able to reduce the medical expenses of Chinese citizens substantially by 2011.

The government's to-do list include a provision designed to prevent hospitals from overcharging patients, and doctors from prescribing unnecessary drugs.

It is proposed that the hospitals will be decoupled from their affiliate pharmacies to end financial incentives for them to over prescribe or prescribe unnecessary medicines. In anticipation of a decline in hospitals' income, the government will provide more funding.

The government will set fixed prices for some common conditions, that will allow patients to pay a fixed price for certain diagnoses, regardless of the subsequent expenses involved in treatment.

The new measures will also allow doctors to practice in different hospitals and to open their own community clinics to make better use of the limited medical resources.

China's health care sector has undergone dramatic reforms in the last three decades.
From mid-1980s, the government initiated a reform intending to to increase the supply of medical treatment by allowing hospitals to profit from their services.

One negative result of the reform was that basic health care, previously free for all citizens, was no longer available to rural residents and other people who were not employees of the government or state-owned companies.

The new reforms are designed to rectify the flaws of the marketization of health care by building a health insurance network covering all citizens including rural residents, and to curb medical costs faced by all patients.