The Health Care in China - Research Paper Example

Table of Contents Page Introduction ……………………………………………………………….. 2 Health Care in China………………………………………………………. 3 Improvement in Chinese Health Care System…………………………….5 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 7 ABSTRACT China is a developing nation with a high constitution of poor people as compared to it’s urban population. The Chinese health care sector have had much reforms in the recent decades, still the urban and rural people are least satisfied to the health care facilities of the country. This can be mainly directed towards the poor implementation and lack of funding by the Chinese Ministry of health to the health centers located widely in the country. The rural population of China is faced with many health adversities and is struggling hard to get access to quality medical care due to the ignorance of the Chinese Ministry of Health. Only a proper funding from the government, and allocating and distributing health care resources intelligently can consistently upgrade the health and wellbeing of all the population of china. Topic: The Health Care in China Introduction China is a country which has recently reached tremendous heights in economical, social and educational scenarios. It is the nation with largest population in the whole world, and is still continuing to develop in all fields at a staggering rate. However, in recent times, health care has been a subject of great interest for Chinese government as the social standard of the people in the country improved dramatically... It is seen that the economic and social development of china has not led to much change in the substantial growth of the health care sector of the country. The absence of qualitative improvement in Chinese health care system could be the reason for the high mortality rate and spread of dreadful infectious disease among the Chinese population. It male sense in mentioning that that all the citizens of China need a full fledged and consistent health care system to upgrade their quality of living collectively. According to (Blumenthal,2005,pg.1165-1170) “After Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist Party took control of China in 1949, they created a health care system that was typical of 20th-century communist societies that are now largely extinct”. Since China is a nation with wide geographical dimension, extraordinary energy and unimaginable size, the health care demand and expectation is highly demanding in the nation. The Chinese government has given attention in improving health care system recently, but comparing to other sectors the health sector is lagging far behind. Health Care in China Generally speaking, the health care system of any country should be very comprehensive and elaborate as it directly is concerned with the quality of living of its citizens. Health care is as important as any other sector of a developing nation, and it can be said that it is vital to the growth of the economic and social areas of the nation. If one look at the Chinese health care indicators, it can be analyzed that development in the rural sector of the nation is very undermined and underdeveloped. Although, the growth in the health care system has been increasing in the past decade, the recent reviews show that there had been a noticeable stagnation in the development of health sector. It is been noticed that the health care expenditure of the country has increased lately but when compared to developed and developing nations it is still at a low rate. As per (IBM,2006)“ China spent 5.8percent of its GDP on health care in 2002, as compared to8 percent by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)8 countries and 5 percent by other developing countries, such as South Africa (8.7 percent),Brazil (7.9 percent) and India (6.1 percent)”.It is unfortunate to know that, the cost of seeing a doctor is very high in China and all social classes may not be in a position to take the health cost upon them as their income can be very low and limited. The main issue for an inferior health care system in the country is due to the inadequate spending by the government on the health sector and inferior use and lack of access to t he health care resources. Without a proper health care system, more than 600 million of people through out the country will find it hard to reach to a quality medical facility. Since 1970 china has slowly transformed in to a market economy, and changes happening in the country have left a profound impact on the urban health services. The Ministry of Health of China has taken definite health reforms to make quality medical and health care benefits to the urban population. “According to official statistics, China still has a large rural society. However, over the past 20 years proportion of urban population has grown sharply. In the year 2000 alone, 458 million people were registered as permanent residents of urban areas, or 36.2 percent of the total population” (Bloom ,2004,pg.16).It is also necessary to understand that as the expectation of the urban dwellers rise the need of health care is also influenced respectively. The standard of living of people in China has been considerably increased by their education and awareness, which invariably has led to the demand of high quality health care service from the government. This has motivated the ministry of health to change health care system with costly and sophisticated clinics, hospitals and hi- tech medical equipments. The ministry of health has also contributed 50% fund on expensively branded drugs, pharmaceutical products, scanners and diagnostic treatment technologies. The government has a great responsibility to enable access to health care system to poor and rich alike .There are great number of farmers and poor population who are inaccessible to proper medical and health care facilitates and thus facing illnesses and death Improvement in Chinese Health Care System According to recent studies, the urban and rural population of the country is not at all satisfied with the health service sector of the Chinese government. The urban population who has more access to the health service is of the opinion that the cost of the health and medical care have risen considerably. It is stated that the most issue of concern for the Chinese citizen is the increasing cost of medical and health care and rural population worries of the unavailability of health services from the government. Mainly the complaints from urban residents are about the accessing difficulty they face towards the health services. The government and state owned enterprise provide comprehensive health packages to employees, but these are more available to employees who remained in the job for a longer period. According to (Thomas,2011)“The State Council of China has announced plans to expand medical insurance coverage for workers and residents within the country’s urban centers. The reform will see 90 percent of the costs associated with medical treatment covered by insurance for 440 million individuals throughout the People’s Republic of China”Here one thing we can notice is that the rural population of the country is mostly ignored and unattended. Even though Chinese government had made reforms in health services, the widely populated rural areas are not included extensively in their health care agenda.. It is very important for the Chinese government to make health care reforms which cover the entire population of the country and not just the urban crowd. The reason for inefficiency in health care system is that they are not allocating and identifying the health resources in the right manner and only a minor section is enjoying benefits and rest of the population is constantly suffering. “The important problems include the followings: the misdistribution of health resources, 80 % of health resources allocate in urban areas where only 20 % population live, to the contrast, only 20% health resources distribute in rural areas where 80 % population live”(Jing,2001).The government should take initiative to spend more funds for health care system and should set up health centers in rural areas. Rural people have rights to enjoy good health and more importance should be given to them as they do not have income to pay for their medical needs. . Unfortunately the government is at present concentrating more on curative measure which is not the right thing to do. On the contrary, preventive measures for diseases should be implemented by the government, so that fewer funds is spent on technology and medicines and also less suffering is endured by the citizens. To cover up this huge population with health care system is not an easy job and it requires considerable amount of strategically planning from the part of the government. As per, (Hassan, 2007,pg. 85-103)“The central and local governments need to implement further policies in order to reduce or stabilize the health care costs, such as gradual increase in doctors wages to decrease the deliverance of unnecessary care, partial privatization of medical insurance enterprises, placing representatives for insurance companies in the hospitals, and also better control of medical bills”. In 1950s all counties in china had maternal and child healthcare facilities and commune were established to serve the rural people better. There were clinics run by rural doctors who were transformed in to commune hospital to render better service supply system to the poor and uneducated lot of the rural sector... The main issue for inadequate health care is that the government’s financial concentration in health care service is seriously inadequate, and the fund which is delivered is not used efficiently. Moreover, there is tax system in china which demands tax from every province of the country, which is unfair to the already poor and weak farmers of the regions. Broadly speaking, all population of the country as a primary right to demand quality medical and health care benefits from the government .Preventive care should be a major agenda in the health care reforms and policies as it could cut down the work load of government and people alike. “The fact was – and everyone in China knew it, from the leadership down to the villages – that the health care had become a profit generating machine looking for economics of scale ,profitable niches and wealth patients”.(French ,2010,pg.179). The government is not recognizing the suffering of urban people who constitute 80% of the country’s population. The rapid increase in the cost of the medical services have made health service inaccessible for the rural and urban alike Conclusion Health care is a very important policy of all the nations,and a country can develop consistently only if its citizens enjoy a high quality living and health standards. China is a fast developing nation, and will grow to be a super power in a couple of decades. But seeing at the sufferings of the poor population with health issues, much can be analyzed about the inefficient health reforms and strategies of the Ministry Health of China. It is also seen that health workers who serve ignored poor people and underprivileged are also not treated fairly by Ministry of Health. “For example , the National Rural Co – operative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) is at the top of government’s health agenda , as indicated by the fact that the NRCMS coverage is the only obligatory indicator in the overall health plan”(Wagstaff,2009,pg.12). When considering the health care efficiency of China, a noticeable change is only visible in the urban area of the country. The major population of the country is suffering with high mortality rate, short life expectancy and dull health and medical facilities. The truth is that, most of the poorest people are located at the western parts of China and are having an income below nation average income level. In also in comparison to the GDP of the country the health care costs are rapidly increasing. This situation can be only reversed, if the Chinese government makes serious effort in over viewing the strategies and health policies of the country by covering the poor and rural population’s needs and demands. Bibliography Blumenthal, D. (2005). Privatization and its discontents — the evolving chinese health care system. The New England Journal of Medicine, 35(4), 1165-1170 Bloom, G. (2004). Health care transition in urban china . Hants: Ashgate Publishing Limited. French, P. (2010). Fat china: how expanding waistlines are changing a nation . New York: Anthem Press. Hassan, H.D. (2007). Health care costs in china. Journal of Health management , 9(1), 85-103. IBM . (2006, March 15). Health care in china. Retrieved from http://www-935.ibm.com/s ervices/us/imc/pdf/g510-6268-healthcare-china.pd Jing, F. (2001, November 13). Financial reform and its impact on health service in poor rural china. Retrieved from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/Conferences/financial_sector/FinRefrmandIm pactonHealthServ.pdf Thomas . (2011, February 18). China announces plans to improve healthcare. Retrieved from http://www.globalsurance.com/blog/china-announces-plans-to-improve-healthcare-312120.html Wagstaff, A. (2009). Reforming chinas rural health system.Washington D.C.: World Bank Publications Read More