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Universal healthcare reform offers hope for rural poor

By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-09 08:00

Residents in rural areas receive free healthcare examinations by doctors from Zouping People's Hospital in Shandong province. Dong Naide / For CHINA DAILY

China is preparing to establish a universal health care system for the country's 1.3 billion people by the year 2011.

The current round of health care reform, which started in 2003 will have cost the government more than $120 billion by 2011, official statistics showed.

As part of the reform the government are taking measures to provide basic medical security to all Chinese in urban and rural areas. This involves improving accessibility, quality and affordability of medical services for ordinary people, Xinhua reported.

At the same time, Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu said intensified efforts should be made to bridge a widening gap between the quality of healthcare offered in urban and rural areas, both in terms of outcome for patients and access to services.

"The gap probably will not be closed in the next 30 years," he warned.

In China, rural children are three to six times more likely than city children to die before they turn five, highlighting a wide gap in healthcare for the rich and poor in China, a latest study published in the Lancet showed.

Since the Chinese government introduced the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme in 2003, about 830 million rural residents have benefited from the program.

The annual premium per capita is about 120 yuan, shared by participants, and central and local governments.

Previously, most of China's State-owned public hospitals and clinics relied on profits from the sale of drugs, expensive treatments and examinations to cover operating expenses. Facilities have been accused of prescribing expensive and sometimes unnecessary medication, a heavy burden on patients and a great waste of limited medical resources.

"Clearly, new ways must be found to finance healthcare," World Bank officials said in a report on reforming China's rural health system.

Reforms should encourage health providers to watch their costs and prescribe treatments appropriately, the report said.

A system must be put in place that doesn't encourage the delivery of "unnecessary care or care that is unnecessarily expensive," said Adam Wagstaff, the report's lead author.

Also, to assure basic healthcare services for poor rural residents, a medical assistance scheme has been carried out across China, reimbursing patients' out-of-pocket medical care fees for inpatient and outpatient medical services.

Exact policies vary regionally according to the local financial situation, experts said.

In certain relatively well-off cities, a trial project for public hospital reform has begun, according to the Ministry of Health.

The activity of public hospitals profiting from drug selling has been going on for two decades but experts said that this will now be eliminated, to lower patients' economic burden on medication and optimize resources in general.

CHINA DAILY

(China Daily 04/09/2010 page18)