Health care costs still a heavy burden for mainlanders, says health minister
Despite four years of reforms and HK$1.4 trillion in government funding, citizens' medical bills remain too heavy, health minister tells conference
Health care is still too expensive on the mainland despite almost four years of reform, Health Minister Dr Chen Zhu said yesterday.
The central government kicked off a mammoth healthcare reform effort in April 2009, pledging to allocate an extra of 850 billion yuan (HK$1.04 trillion) in government funds to the healthcare system over three years to address the problem of inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare. Some measures, such as improving service in public hospitals, implementing an essential drug catalogue system to bring down drug prices and expanding the insurance network have been mapped out.
Since then, the mainland has established the world's largest medical insurance network, with 95 per cent of the population - farmers, urban employees and urban residents - enjoying basic medical insurance.
"But the burden on residents is still heavy," Chen said, citing the example of reimbursing money spent on drugs. Although three-quarters of the money spent on drugs listed in insurance policies could be reimbursed, only half actually was, he said, and the problem was made worse because of lax controls on the use of many drugs that were not listed.
Premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang said at the weekend that more financial support was needed for medical reform.