| At present, it is quite obvious there is the unfair distribution of urban-rural health resources in China. It is one of the major difficulties in healthcare reform, which is not only doing harm to fairness and efficiency, but also not in accordance with coordinated development and harmonious development of urban and rural areas, and against the strategic plan, urban-rural integration of economic and social development, raised at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee. Therefore, optimizing the distribution of urban-rural health resources has become an important part of China’s healthcare reform, and is also an important way to overcome the difficulties of high cost of medical service. From the perspectives of economics, and closely relating economic theories, characters of health resources and the fact of the regional development in China, this paper is to do an overall and systematic research on the optimization of urban-rural health resources, in order to construct the theoretical framework of optimizing the distribution of urban-rural health resources in China, to contribute to the basic theoretical study of the distribution of health resources and to propose scientific suggestions for urban-rural integration of health care and healthcare reform.This paper, consisting of three parts: Introduction, Fundamental Analysis and The Analysis of the Current Status in China, presents the theoretical and empirical study on the optimization of urban-rural health resources.The first part, Introduction, states the background and issues, objective and significance of the study, research methods , etc.The second part, Fundamental Analysis, consists of three chapters.Chapter 1 provides the theoretical basis for the paper, summarizing related theories of resource distribution and health resource distribution, and reviews of empirical research on urban-rural health resources.Chapter 2 discusses the mechanism of optimizing the distribution of urban-rural health resources. Firstly, it gives a theoretical analysis of health care needs, together with characteristics and affecting factors of healthcare supply from the perspective of health economics. Then it outlines the methods of health resource distribution, namely planned distribution and market distribution. Through analyzing the signs and consequences of market failure, it is suggested that the combination of planning regulation and market regulation is the only way to achieve the optimal distribution of health resources.Chapter 3 discusses the models and experiences of health resource distribution in England, the United States of America, Germany and Singapore from the perspective of both theory and practice. According to successful experiences abroad, the government should promote actively social programs and insist on market economy to ensure the equity and justice. From the experience abroad, we should make clear the responsibility of the government in order to distribute the urban and rural resources reasonably, to achieve the combination of government functions and market mechanism, to provide the multilayered medicinal care and health services and to continually perfect the healthcare system. Part 3, The Analysis of the Current Status in China, includes chapter 4, 5 and 6, which is the main part of the paper.Chapter 4 analyzes the current status of urban-rural health resource distribution in China. It firstly reviews policies and achievements of health resource distribution before and after reform and opening-up. Secondly, the current status of urban-rural health resource distribution is analyzed from the aspects of healthcare costs, manpower and material resources of healthcare, and geographical accessibility by using statistical and inductive methods. It shows a serious imbalance in urban-rural health resource distribution in China, resulting in an“inverted triangle”phenomenon, and also the disorder that the supply of urban-rural health resources can not meet demands. Thirdly, through theories of fairness and efficiency and related indexes, the current status of urban-rural health resource distribution is evaluated, and the conclusion is that the imbalance in urban-rural health resource distribution shows the defect of the fairness of health care and leads to the inefficient of use of health resources. Lastly, reasons leading to the imbalance are analyzed.Chapter 5 deals with optimal model selection of urban-rural health resource distribution. It states that the development of health care in China is faced with a directional choice and it is advisable to follow the basic rules of health care development and choose a way suitable for China. Firstly, it puts forward the objective and framework of optimizing the distribution of urban-rural health resources. The objective is to optimize health resource fairly and reasonably, that is to say, to use the limited resources to their full play and to achieve the maximum social and economic benefits. Secondly, it discusses the responsibilities of government in the distribution of health resource. The optimal distribution of urban-rural health resources can be achieved through improving the health finance system, strengthening regional health planning, constructing new healthcare system and improving the healthcare insurance system. Lastly, it summarizes the models of distribution reform aiming at integrating medical and health resources, improving efficiency, promoting the balanced development and innovation in recent years.Chapter 6 is about ideas on optimizing the distribution of urban-rural health resources. Based on the objective and framework proposed in chapter 5, it suggests that, to achieve the optimal distribution of urban-rural health resources, it needs to deepen the reform of health finance system, the regional health planning, medical service system, and healthcare insurance system.Finally, the end of the essay generalizes and summerizes the theoritical and empirical research of the essay, reduces some innovative points and discusses about the questions to be deepened. |
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