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China is now facing two burdens in the form of acute infectious disease and chronic major diseases. The number of patients suffering from infectious diseases is still one of the highest in the world. Traditional infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, etc. still threaten the health of the Chinese people. Newly-emerged infectious diseases such as AIDS, SARS, and avian flu make prevention very difficult. Meanwhile, due to the constant change in their living, working and psychological environment, more and more Chinese patients are suffering from major diseases like malignant cancers, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, etc.
These major diseases not only significantly impact an individual's health; they also bring a heavy economic burden to the family of the patient as well as society. Relevant authorities indicate that the transformation from treatment in the final stage, to preventive medicine, is necessary.
The current medical insurance system in China includes a comprehensive arrangement for major diseases. There is a payment starting-point from a few hundred to thousands of dollars depending on the economic capability and healthcare standard. Patients are responsible for the medical fees below the payment starting-point, while the social insurance institute will pay for the medical fees above it. Generally, most of the money is used for inpatient services and serious diseases in the outpatient department. Since the payment for major diseases is usually quite high, business insurance has become an important supplement in recent years. Each insurance company has launched their own products for major diseases.
Despite the establishment of disease prevention and control institutes in county governments in China, the quality of staff and relevant equipment are still lacking.
The gap between the healthcare and hygiene services of rural and urban residents presents a problem. Since there are differences in the degrees of economic development between rural and urban areas, a gap exists between the level of quality of their respective healthcare services.
The ultimate measure of success for any health care system is that it provides the highest quality care possible to as many people as is feasible. A pure market-based system is incapable of doing that, as China itself has already discovered. As Dr. Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative to China, said "Health planners must look beyond the cold calculus of economics and into the core of the human values embedded in the very concept of health care, if they are to develop a truly healthy country." Arguably, no country has yet met that threshold. As it considers reforms to its own system, China has an enormous challenge and opportunity to pioneer a new approach. one the rest of the world may follow.