Research On New Rural Cooperative Medical Care System

Research on New Rural Cooperative Medical Care System——Taking Ouhai District for exampleNew Rural Cooperative Medical Care System (NCMS) is a government-organized healthcare system, which encourages the voluntary participation of local rural residents. Basically this program is financially supported by the government. In 2003, the State Council published the official document---On the Establishment of New Rural Cooperative Medical Care System, which was issued by Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture. It marks that China has initiated the construction of NCMS, which is significant in China's rural healthcare system, and it will become an indispensable, complementary part of national social security system.This paper, first, discusses the NCMS development stages. Then, we take Ouhai district in Wenzhou for example to examine the implementation of this program and to analyze the existing problems which have arisen during the practice. Lastly, NCMS acts as a quasi-public service and it is critical to emphasize the importance and functions of government behaviors for the purpose of real effectiveness. The paper consists of the following three parts:1. The current developing situation of NCMSThe overall introductions of national social security system and medical healthcare system are presented to analyze the current situation of NCMS in the case of Ouhai district in Wenzhou. Ouhai is a typically economically developed area, and it is among the experimental places to carry out the NCMS project in China. After eight years, NCMS in Ouhai has quickly been developed with the indication of sharp rise of average amount and total amount of fund-raising. Farmers' participation in this program goes up steadily high. It fully shows that NCMS has been carried out quite successfully in this area.2. The existing problems of NCMS during the practice yearsThere are some common problems arisen from the practical course of NCMS program, including the low-level system, related legal issues and government behaviors. Because of regional differences, the problems involved with NCMS vary between underdeveloped areas and developed areas. In Ouhai district, the main problems are shown in the insufficient funds input, not-in-time government financial assistant, bottleneck of information availability, funds management and supervision, overlaps of insurance system and other social security systems, various difficulties faced with the local mobility of the population, and so on.3. Suggestions to maintain the sustainable development of NCMSNCMS is a kind of exclusive and non-competitive quasi-public service. Government is the representative of farmers'benefits to produce and manage the program. Market mechanism doesn't work in the project. In order to remain the sustainable development of NCMS, all levels of government and its behaviors are the key to the resolution of all the problems mentioned above. Taking Ouhai district for example, it is highly suggested that to solve the NCMS problems, government should increase the financial investment, curb the unreasonable rise in the hospital costs, provide the policy support to primary-level medical institutions, improve the quality of medical services, promote publicity of information, enforce funds management and supervision, coordinate relationships among all the security systems, encourage non-local households to take active part in this program. Only in this way can we guarantee the healthy sustainability of NCMS.