If the government's pledges are honored to the letter, China's
underfunded rural healthcare system is set to witness a major
financial boost this year.
At a national health conference, which ended Tuesday in Beijing,
the Ministry of Health singled out rural healthcare as one of its
five major tasks of 2005.
The decision could not have come at a better time.
The public health system has been under increasing scrutiny in
recent years, especially after the SARS outbreak of 2003, which
exposed serious weaknesses of our existing healthcare system.
And if the situation in the cities is bad, that of rural areas is
desperate. The old rural health cooperative system, which existed
when China was still a planned economy, gradually crumbled as
China's economy shifted towards a market-based one.
And a replacement one has yet to be brought in to fill the vacuum
which has reduced medical services in the countryside to a
minimum.
Currently, rural areas have just 20 percent of the country's
medical resources and yet 70 percent of the country's
population.
And, according to Gao Qiang, vice-minister of health, nearly 80
percent of rural people are not covered by any type of medical
insurance. This means they have to pay all medical costs
themselves.
The drastically rising fees of recent years have taken a heavy toll
on the public, especially farmers whose income growth has stagnated
in the last few years.
"Nearly 48.9 percent of Chinese people cannot afford to see doctors
when they fall ill and 29.6 percent are not hospitalized when they
should be," said Gao, quoting survey results released last month by
the Ministry of Health.
The problem is even more acute in the countryside. With the old
healthcare cooperative system fading, farmers are having to seek
costly medical services in towns and cities.
In recent years, cases of farmers being thrown into poverty by high
medical fees have been widely reported, a situation that has
deterred many from seeking medical help when they fall ill.
A new national rural health cooperative system is urgently needed
to replace the decrepit or non-existent old one.
It is encouraging that the Ministry of Health has recognized the
necessity.
While practical steps and policy support are critical to establish
an effective rural healthcare system, expert support is also
indispensable in the drive to that end.
Recognizing this, the government is to send a 10,000-strong urban
medical team to county-level hospitals over the next three years to
provide medical and training services.
The government is obliged to fairly provide public services such as
medical care, to all people.
As such, it is high time for the government to do more to improve
rural healthcare, which has been neglected for too long.
Pledges have been made and now is the time to see them realized by
concrete action.
(China Daily January 13, 2005)