Most of the existing literature on health system reform in China deals with only one part of the reform process (for example, financing reform in rural areas, or the new system of purchasing pharmaceuticals), or consists of empirical case studies from particular cities or regions. This book gives a broad overview of the process of health system reform in China. It draws extensively from both the Western literature in health economics and the experience of health care reform in a number of other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Holland and Japan, and makes a comparison with China’s approach. It also places the process of health system reform in the context of re-orienting China’s economic policy to place greater emphasis on equity and income distribution, and analyses the interaction of central and local governments in designing and implementing the reforms. This book will be of interest to policymakers, academics, students of health economics, health policy and health administration, and people who are interested in Chinese social policy.

Introduction:

• Health Policy in China: Introduction and Background
• Health Systems and Health Reform: International Models

Main Components of Health Reform:

• Strengthening China’s Social Insurance System
• Providing Primary Care
• The Hospital Sector and Hospital Reform
• China’s National Drug Policy: A Work in Progress

Health Care and Harmonious Development in China:

• Health Policy and Inequality
• Decentralized Government, Central-Local Fiscal Relations, and Health Reform

China’s Health System in the Future:

• Health Services in the Future: Social Insurance and Purchasing
• China’s Future Health Care System: A Mixed Public-Private Model?