Reform of medical care insurance system necessary

The new leadership of China should attach more importance to reform the medical care insurance system and increase its input into medical care, says an article in the 21st Century Business Herald. Excerpts:

There are three kinds of medical welfare systems functioning in China: Medical care paid by government for civil servants, medical care insurance for urban residents and cooperative medical care insurance for the rural population.

The reimbursement ratio is highest for the first kind and lowest for the third. It is increasingly becoming a social consensus that the Chinese government should gradually unify these three systems by increasing its input into medical care.

From 2008 to 2010, China increased its overall input into medical care from 4.6 percent of GDP to 5.1 percent. But the proportion used in medical treatment only increased from 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent. Government subsidization of the second and third kinds of medical insurance rose only slightly from 50 percent to 53 percent of people's final medical expenses.

The rate of reimbursement is 60 percent in Greece, 63 percent in Russia, 47 percent in Brazil and 44 percent in South Africa.

The share of medical care input is 7.8 percent of GDP in Japan, 4.1 percent in South Korea and 3 percent in Mongolia, all higher than the 2.7 percent in China.