Healthcare's for-profit non-profit balancing act

In 2009, China launched its healthcare reform, This is often considered one of the world's greatest social projects, given its broad coverage of more than 1.3 billion people and dedicated investment of over half a trillion US dollars. It has made major achievements, but there are still many challenges that need to be overcome.

The major challenge is how to balance the non-profit "mission" of the State-owned healthcare industry with the for-profit nature of the market economy. There has been a great deal of debate about whether China should turn left or turn right when implementing further healthcare reforms; yet in reality it can go straight ahead.

In healthcare, a fundamental principle is "no margin, no mission". The world shares the same mission to provide better care to more people. The world also shares the understanding that all missions have costs and rely on high productivity, efficient management and sustainable investment. Creation and distribution, these are keywords. Value or "profit" can be created in any margin driven system to ensure productivity, and value and profit can thereby be distributed as public gains if publicly owned.