Plan to heal nation's failing health system
19/1/2008 9:56
China's long-awaited reform plan for its failing health care system will be
released in March shortly after the top legislature's annual session, Health
Minister Chen Zhu said.
The plan has almost been completed and the
ministry is still soliciting opinions from experts and other departments, Chen
was quoted as saying by yesterday's Modern Express, based in east China's
Jiangsu Province.
The plan covers four aspects of the medical system:
public health care, medical treatment, medical insurance and supply of
medicines, he said at a meeting in Jiangsu.
Soaring medical costs in
recent years have plunged many rural and urban Chinese back into poverty as a
result of the government's failure to implement an adequate medical insurance
network after it cut subsidies for medical costs in 1992.
China plans to
reform the present system so that common people can enjoy universal basic
services at reasonable prices, according to a government report to the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, last
December.
The scheme features basic concepts including adhering to the
orientation of serving the people, ensuring the "non-profit" nature of public
medical institutions, cutting hospitals' involvement in drug sales, increasing
governmental responsibility and input, and establishing a basic medicare network
for the whole population.
The ministry announced earlier this month that
the reform will be piloted this year "in selected regions".
Several
provinces including Jiangsu have applied to take part in the trial, Chen
said.
The minister, also a renowned molecular biologist, called on
doctors to improve their professional ethics.
Xinhua
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