Analysis On The Government Responsibilities In Developing Health Care System In China

Health care, being closely correlated with the physical fitness and vital interests of thepeople, has always been a hot issue of high social concerns. Since the founding of thePeople's Republic of China, our government has consistently paid great attention to the healthcare, and a series of policies and measures have been adopted to construct a health caresystem that endeavors to improve the physical fitness of the vast populace. Reforms in thehealth care systems have brought remarkable improvements. The health care system coveringboth urban and rural areas has been established, gradually expanding the availability ofmedical care. The health of the people has been improved significantly, and the mainpopulation health indicators are among the top in developing countries. However, with thereforms emerged a wide range of problems, which have turned into a more and more serioussituation. Particularly, in 1985 the health care reform was formally launched and thegovernment shifted its own responsibility to the market, thus causing"costly in seeing adoctor and difficult in seeking medical care". Among the emerging problems are socialinequality of the right to have medical care, the urban and rural imbalance in medicalresources allocation, and high expenses for the populace in using medical care.Then, in this time of social and economic restructuring, what kind of responsibilitiesshall be taken by our government in the health care system? What exactly has led to the lackof responsibilities in the government level in developing health care system? With the newmedical reform program publicized, what shall be done to improve the awareness ofresponsibilities of the government? This paper focuses on the above-mentioned questions.Firstly, the paper starts with the retrospect of the development history of health caresystem in our country, leading to the analysis on the specific responsibilities that ourgovernment shall undertake in medical and health care system. The responsibilities include the legislation protection, system arrangement, financial support, basic medical insurance,allocation optimization of medical resources, and market supervision. Then the paper lists thelack of responsibility from our government in various aspects, including the hysteresis inlegislation, the illegitimacy in system arrangement, inadequate financial support,low-coverage of basic medical insurance, inequality in the allocation of medical resources,and the deficiency in market supervision. Thus the paper proceeds to analyze what has causedthe lack of responsibilities in government level, mainly because of the dislocation ingovernment value orientation, role chaos, excess dependence on the administrative power,inadequacy in execution, and lack of supervision.Secondly, the paper probes into the new medical reform program, and recognizes thegovernment's responsibility regression in the health care system. For example, the concept ofgovernment's responsibility is being strengthened, the framework for basic health care systemis setup, more financial support is being injected, the medical resources'allocation is moreequality-oriented, and more attention is paid to the supervision of medical and health caremarket.Last but not the least, the paper raises the suggestions regarding government'sresponsibility in improving the health care of our country. The suggestions include furtherspecifying government's responsibilities, intensifying the concept of government'sresponsibilities, establishing sound legislation system, guaranteeing the stable developmentof medical and health care system, increasing financial injection, optimizing thegovernment-level health expenditure, conducting effective supervision on medical and healthfields, and reforming and optimizing the administrative decision-making mechanism torealize the scientific and democratic government decisions.