Research On The Regulation Of The Medical Service Industry In China

The medical service industry is an industry with high information asymmetry, meanwhile having a significant role in building people's health, thus calling for effective regulation by the government. Along with the rapid changing of external environment, the traditional system can not meet people's quick increasing need for the quantity and quality of medical service any longer. Under this circumstance and with the background of reform and opening up and the development of market economy, the scale of the medical service industry is enlarged, the content of the medical service starts to diversify, and the ability and quality has been increasingly enhanced in the medical service industry. But as the loosening of government regulation to the medical service industry and the establishment of the marketing reform, a series of serious problems come one by one ----the too quick risen of medical service expenses, maintaining the economic profit of hospitals by high profits from medicines and medical equipments, inequity of the medical service, accessibility issue, and low quality of medical service, etc. Problems like difficulty and expensive in getting medical service, and even impossible in getting medical service have become people's criticizing topics. All the above issues make the development of the medical service industry sink into a dilemma. Thus two contradictory opinions arise according to the cause for the failure of medical reform, different stands are brought about to strengthen regulation or deregulation. In fact, neither purely strict government regulation nor pure marketization could guarantee the realization of objectives as equity and efficiency for medical service, the government should not stand on the opposite side of the market, modern market economy should be the effective combination of government regulation and market mechanism.Based on the basic regulation theory of the medical service industry in China, this dissertation makes analysis by the means of general economic theory for the characteristics of the medical service and market failure with general economic theories, advances the objective of the medical service regulation combining with the requirement for public interest and equity. On the basis of analysis of the current status, main problems and caused, solutions and suggestions for regulation structure and system are put forward to Chinese medical service regulation reform, through the comparison and mirror of regulation experiences in the medical service industry of main developed countries.There are seven chapters in the dissertation and they are divided into five parts.The first part is the second chapter stating national and international literature review. It cards the domestic and foreign literature review from four aspects as the connotation and characters of the medical service industry, regulation needs, regulation contents and regulation effects, making analysis with this foundation and premise.The second part is the third chapter which is the theoretical foundation of government regulation for the medical service industry. Historical evolution of Chinese medical service industry regulation is analyzed integrating with the development of regulation theory, and then the implication and studying scope of the medical service industry are defined. Analysis is made for the characteristics of the medical service and market failure with general economic theories, concluding evidences for the government regulation in the medical service industry as for the equity requirement, as well as advancing the objective of medical service regulation.The third part is the fourth and fifth chapter that analyze the status, problems and their causes for regulation of the medical service industry. The fourth chapter reviews on the historical evolution of Chinese government regulation in the medical service industry, summarizing it into three stages, subsequently introduces the current situation of regulation structure and system of the medical service industry in China, analyzes the dilemma that our medical service industry in facing. In the fifth chapter, main problems in the regulation of Chinese medical service industry are analyzed according to the dilemma, deeper level reasons which cause these problems are dug out as well.The fourth part is the sixth chapter, which is about the experiences and references of medical service industry regulation in main developed countries. It mainly observes the empirical experiences of regulation of the medical service industry in America, Britain, German and Singapore. These experiences are compared and disclosed of their advantages and shortages, thus enlightenment which may benefit Chinese medical service industry is obtained, from angles as structuring of regulation institutions, price regulation, entry regulation and quality regulation, etc.. The fifth part is the seventh chapter, giving main solutions to the regulation reform of Chinese medical service industry. It makes according policy suggestions on how to successfully regulate Chinese medical service industry all-dimensionally from regulation structure to regulation system, drawing on the successful experiences from developed countries and being directed against the problems of Chinese medical service industry.