China's health care reform continues to make progress

Business Club December 21st According to China Voices "news and newspaper abstracts," it is reported that China's health care reform has made continuous progress, and the price of essential medicines has dropped significantly. By the end of next year, all essential medicines in the country will be centralized procurement and unified distribution.

Zhu Zhixin, director of the State Council's Medical Reform Office, said that this year's medical reform work has made positive progress. The number of urban residents participating in the insurance system has reached 424 million. The number of people participating in the new rural cooperative medical insurance has reached 835 million, and the rate of participation has been stable at more than 90%. Medical insurance for urban residents and the New Rural Cooperatives The government subsidy standard has been raised to 120 yuan per person per year, the reimbursement rate has been increased to 60% within the scope of the hospitalization cost policy in most areas, and outpatient coverage has expanded to more than 50%. The basic drug system was implemented in about 50% of the government-run grass-roots medical and health institutions, and the price of essential drugs fell by an average of 30%.

On the basis of last year, the Central Government has supported the construction of nearly 15,000 grass-roots medical and health institutions in urban and rural areas this year, and has started the implementation of a grass-roots health team construction plan focusing on general practitioners. At the same time, the difficulty of the reform itself is also increasing. Next year is the “Closing Year” of the “Recently Implemented Plan for the Reform of the Medical and Health System (2009-2011)”: I think the current priority is to Reshaping the primary drug supply system, reshaping the new operating mechanism of primary health care institutions.

In the following year, the basic medicine system will also strive to advance toward the remaining 50% of the region. This means that by the end of next year, the basic medicines used by the government’s basic medical institutions will be implemented in provinces, regions, and cities. The centralized procurement and unified distribution are considered to be the most powerful measures to change the high drug prices and to use drugs to provide medicine.