Restructuring The Basic Health Protection System in Rural China
Zhu Ling[1]
Abstract
Market-oriented reforms in the health sector together with fiscal decentralization have led to low efficiency of resource allocation and utilization, increasing inequality as well as reducing the ability of the poor to access health care services in China. This situation creates greater health vulnerability for those who are initially at greater risk of disease but who are not under the cover of social protection. For the purpose of providing the rural poor basic health security, it is necessary to implement targeted programs to provide preventive services, to invest in village-level health care services that the poor most frequently need, to strengthen the resources available to the poor and the aged with health relief, and to link the community-based health insurance programs with formal insurance services.
Key Words: health security, rural poor, China
