Main characteristics and historical evolution of China's health financing transition
10.19723/j.issn.1671-167X.2024.03.013
- VernacularTitle:中国卫生筹资转型的主要特征与历史沿革
- Author:
Qingbo WANG
1
;
Hongqiao FU
Author Information
1. 北京大学公共卫生学院卫生政策与管理学系,北京 100191
- Keywords:
Health financing;
Health policy;
Health expenditures;
History;
China
- From:
Journal of Peking University(Health Sciences)
2024;56(3):462-470
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To comprehend the main characteristics and historical evolution of health finan-cing transition in China.Methods:Data were collected from various sources,including the Global Health Expenditure Database(GHED),China Health Statistics Yearbook,National Health Finance Annual Report,China's Total Health Expenditure Research Report,et al.Descriptive statistics and liter-ature study was conducted.Results:Since the beginning of the 21st century,most countries in the world had witnessed a transition of health financing,characterized by the expansion of health financing scale and the strengthening of public financing responsibility.Notably,China's health financing transition exhibited distinctive features.Firstly,there had been a more rapid expansion in health financing scale compared with global averages.Between 2000 and 2019,total health expenditure per capita experienced a remarkable increase of 816.6％at comparable prices,significantly surpassing average growth rates observed among other countries worldwide(102.1％).Secondly,greater efforts had been made to strengthen the responsibilities of public financing.From 2000 to 2019,there was a substantial decrease of 30.6 percentage points in the proportion of out-of-pocket health expenditure as a share of total health expenditure.This decline was significantly larger than the average reduction observed among other coun-tries worldwide(5.6 percentage points).Thirdly,there had been a significant shift in government health expenditure allocation patterns,with an increased emphasis on"demand-side subsidies"surpassing"supply-side subsidies".Within the realm of"supply-side subsidies",funding directed towards hospitals had notably increased and surpassed that allocated to primary healthcare institutions and public health institutions.Based on these distinctive characteristics,this paper expanded China's health financing tran-sition into three dimensions:Scale dimension,structure dimension and flow dimension.Using a compre-hensive analytical framework,the history of China's health financing transition was roughly divided into four stages:The planned economy stage,the economic transition stage,the post-SARS stage and the new health system reform stage.The main features and evolutionary logic associated with each stage were ana-lyzed.Conclusion:Above all,the health financing system should be enhanced in terms of vertical"em-beddedness"and horizontal"complementarity".Moreover,the significance of health financing transition in preserving hidden value and mitigating public risk should be emphasized,and there is a need for an improved two-way trade-off mechanism that balances value and risk.Additionally,the ethical principles associated with health financing transition should be considered comprehensively,while optimizing budget decision-making within the government's actual governance model.Lastly,it is crucial to recognize the overall and profound impact of modern medicine development and explore long-term strategies and path-ways for health financing transition in China.
