home email us! sindicaci;ón

China’s Internal Health Care Debate Heats Up

by Fred Fortin

Despite all that’s going on in Beijing and the sorry press it suffers these days, we’re starting to get a glimpse of the terms of the internal debate on health care reform as it spill out in the local media. A recent story in the Beijing Review points to the domestic battle over the role of the market when it comes to health care. It presents the contrasting views of two professors over why China’s health care system has failed its citizens. Professor Cai Jiangnan, from the School of Economics, Fudan University reveals a distinctly Chinese view of social equity and the distribution of health care resources between the majority of citizens who use the system infrequently and those who are seriously ill. Cai believes that the present system is designed to meet the minimal needs of the relatively well, while postponing meeting the needs of the seriously ill until some point in the future when the economy can afford health care to this minority. The government needs to change this priority, he says, with everyone having an “equal opportunity” for health care security. Since the government ” is still weak in market regulation and short of experience, it’s necessary to slow down the pace of the market-geared reform of health care services.”

A Professor Zhou Qiren, from the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University, in response argues that there is something seriously wrong in the supply and demand for medical services in the country. He lays the blame precisely at the feet of state-owned hospitals (where mostly all physicians in China are employed) and the government control and administration of the prices of medical services and medicines. Zhou observes, “some people criticize the marketization of medical services. I’m puzzled: This is by no means marketization”.

I’ve got the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the fierce exchanges that are now taking place all over China when it comes to health care reform.


2 Comments »

[…] my complete post over at World Health  Care Blog. Posted in WorldHealthCareBlog, Globalization, China, […]

[…] Fred Fortin对中国大陆卫生改革的不同声音感到迷惑,而我们使用中文作为母语的也不比他觉得前景清晰。在这场卫生改革的争吵之中,有一部分人认为在卫生筹资方面,医疗机构或医务人员不应该从服务中盈利,例如公立医院“收支两条线”是重吃大锅饭?实际上这场无功而返的吵架中,我可以清晰的看到财政部、社会与劳动保障部、卫生部官员声音后面的潜意识。就卫生筹资之而言,有三种对立的声音。 […]

Your comment

HTML-Tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>