The Research On The Government Responsibility In The Reform Of Public Hospitals

As China’s economic is rapidly growing, people’s demand for public services becomes increasingly high. The focus of concern has shifted to improving the quality of life, instead of pursuing necessities such as food and clothing, with healthcare services as the top priority. The Problems with accessibility and affordability have become the central issues, while there’s an increasingly strong request for equitable access to public health services. In China, healthcare services are provided mainly through public hospitals. Although there is an increased number of public hospitals available, the efficiency and fairness of provision of the services can not meet the needs of the public. Whether Public Hospitals mandate its interest in commonweal is the key to achieve fairness in healthcare provision.In 2009, the State Council promulgated the "Opinions on Intensifying the Reform of Healthcare System", a prelude of the Public Hospital Reform. As of 2015, healthcare reform has gone through several stages. Through constant exploration and adjustment, healthcare reform has induced some positive effects. However, it’s undeniable that the current stage has not been successful, because while the reform did not solve the above mentioned problems, certain policies triggered additional conflicts. I believe that only when there are clear indications of the government’s responsibility in carrying out the reform, regulatory functions insupervision of the public hospitals, and fiscal dominance in hospitals’ investments, can we make rational policies to guide healthy development of public hospitals, which will lead to the ultimate success of healthcare reform and accomplish the goal of establishing universal health care. This article analyzed the reform of public hospitals from the government’s perspective, with emphasis on the governmental responsibilities. Beginning with an exposition of the background and summary of the current researches by domestic and international scholars, this paper carried out an analysis on theoretical basis of the main responsibilities the government should bear in the reform of public hospitals. It also clarifies the importance of government responsibility.via analyzing the associated concepts of public hospitals and the market’s and government’s duties. Furthermore, this paper made a longitudinal analysis of the transitions of governmental responsibility during the health care reform from two aspects:the evolution of governmental duties and funding model for public hospitals. Based on the analysis of specific measures of Public Hospitals Reform and their effects in Nanjing, this paper makes proposals on policies to support public hospitals by the government. The current stage of the healthcare reform lacks government involvement. The earlier policies, which relied on market-oriented operations to provide healthcare services to the public, were unable to solve the actual problems encountered during the reform. Increasing government investment and ensuring public welfare during hospital operations is the direction of future healthcare reform.