China’s Policy Reforms: Social Services, Regulation, and Finance

After a rapid economic growth for 30 years, improving equity and constructing a harmony society becomes the focus of China’s current administration. Reforms on social services have been actively initiated in recent years. As social services require resource redistribution, the balance between stimulating economic growth and building a harmonious society is the underlying consideration of this paper. Public complaints on China’s health system have been summarized by a phrase: “Kan Bing Gui and Kan Bing Nan”, meaning obtaining medical care is expensive and difficult. Following the assessment on China’s health system from the World Health Organization, fairness in healthcare financing is the main concern of this study. Data show that there is a substantial variation in healthcare utilization and health across provinces and between rural and urban areas. The largest difference in life expectancy between two provinces reaches 14 years. The average healthcare expenditure in the highest income province is more than 3 times of that in the lowest province in both urban and rural areas, and the national average of healthcare expenditure of urban residents is also more than 3 times of that of rural residents in recent years