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China to boost medical service accessibility

Xinhua, March 23, 2012

• China has pledged to promote equal access to medical care services for its citizens and significantly improve the quality and efficiency of medical services by 2015.

  According to a circular on the implementation of medical industry reforms specified in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the government will gradually increase the proportion of its investment in public health as part of its total public spending over the next four years.

  The government will ease the financial burden of obtaining health care by reducing personal spending to somewhere below 30 percent of the total cost, the document said.

  Moreover, the government will work to increase the average life expectancy in China to 74.5 years and bring the infant mortality and maternal mortality rates below 12 per 1,000 and 22 out of per 100,000 people, respectively, the document said.

  Medical reform efforts over the next four years will focus on the expansion of the medical insurance system, improvement of community medical institutions and advancement in public hospital reform, according to Vice Minister of Health Zhang Mao.

  EXPANDING INSURANCE

  The government plans to expand coverage for basic medical insurance and provide better insurance programs for the treatment of serious diseases, Zhang said.

  By the end of this year, medical insurance will cover 90 percent of medical costs for eight kinds of serious diseases, including children's congenital heart disease and leukemia, he said.

  According to the circular, during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period, coverage for basic medical insurance, including medical insurance for urban employees, medical insurance for unemployed urbanites and rural cooperative medical insurance, will increase by three percentage points from 2010.

  IMPROVING COMMUNITY HEALTH CARE

  China will also reform its basic medicine system, as well as improve service at community health care institutions, Zhang said.

  According to Zhang, by the end of 2015, the government will train 150,000 general practitioners for community health institutions and ensure that every 10,000 urban residents have at least two general practitioners and that every township clinic has at least one.

  The circular also states that more than 95 percent of community health institutions should be up to government standards by 2015.

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