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Health policy reform in China: Lessons from Asia

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  • Ramesh, M.
  • Wu, Xun

Abstract

Declining access to health care and rapidly rising health expenditures are a matter of grave public concern in China. After decades of efforts to reduce its involvement, the Chinese government is currently in the process of reforming the sector through increase in public expenditures and expansion of health insurance. The objective of this paper is to assess the potential of the reform direction in light of international experiences with similar reforms. It argues - on the basis of examination of reform experiences in Korea, Singapore and Thailand - that financing reforms without parallel measures to improve the provision system, especially how providers are paid, are unlikely to address the problems and may actually aggravate them. If the financing reforms are to succeed, it is vital for China to reform the incentives that guide the providers' behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramesh, M. & Wu, Xun, 2009. "Health policy reform in China: Lessons from Asia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2256-2262, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:12:p:2256-2262
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    2. Chris Nyland & Charmine E.J. Härtel & Thin Vu & Cherrie Jiuhua Zhu, 2015. "Hospital Numerical Flexibility and Nurse Economic Security in China and India," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(1), pages 136-158, March.
    3. Heather Mullins-Owens, 2015. "Inequities in Chinese Health Services," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, March.
    4. JunQiang Liu & Tao Chen, 2013. "Sleeping money: investigating the huge surpluses of social health insurance in China," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 319-331, December.
    5. Eduardo Araral, 2014. "Policy and regulatory design for developing countries: a mechanism design and transaction cost approach," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 47(3), pages 289-303, September.
    6. Hao Zhang & Huimei Hu & Christina Wu & Hai Yu & Hengjin Dong, 2015. "Impact of China's Public Hospital Reform on Healthcare Expenditures and Utilization: A Case Study in ZJ Province," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    7. Li, Cheng & Yu, Xuan & Butler, James R.G. & Yiengprugsawan, Vasoontara & Yu, Min, 2011. "Moving towards universal health insurance in China: Performance, issues and lessons from Thailand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 359-366, August.
    8. Zhang, Xuanchuan & Chen, Li-Wu & Mueller, Keith & Yu, Qiao & Liu, Jiapeng & Lin, Ge, 2011. "Tracking the effectiveness of health care reform in China: A case study of community health centers in a district of Beijing," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 181-188.
    9. Yuhui Ruan & Chenyang Zhuang & Weisin Chen & Jinyu Xie & Yaodong Zhao & Lufa Zhang & Hong Lin, 2021. "Limited knowledge and distrust are important social factors of out‐patient’ s ‘inappropriate diagnosed seeking behaviour’: a qualitative research in Shanghai," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 847-865, May.
    10. Yuting Zhang & Qianheng Ma & Yingchun Chen & Hongxia Gao, 2017. "Effects of Public Hospital Reform on Inpatient Expenditures in Rural China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 421-430, April.
    11. Liu, Jun-Qiang, 2011. "Dynamics of social health insurance development: Examining the determinants of Chinese basic health insurance coverage with panel data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(4), pages 550-558, August.

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