Objective To understand the basic situation and the influencing factors of medical expenses of the inpatients in Haikou city for the government to developing a scientific control policy of medical expense or improving the existing measures for controlling the medical expense.Methods Totally 463 inpatients from 10 hospitals were conducted the questionnaire survey and the survey data were analyzed.Results The difference of medical costs constituent existed in different medical institutions and the me-dian of drug costs to the total medical costs in general hospital was 42.13%.30.02% (139/463)of the surveyed inpatients thought that the use of “new techniques,new drugs and new equipments”was the primary cause of medical costs rising.51.19%(237/463) of patients thought that the primary considered factor is “cure”when seeing a doctor.24.84%(115/463)of patients did not known the modification of medical insurance policy.46.00%(213/463)and 28.51%(132/463)of patients thought that the main responsi-bility main body for controlling the medical costs rising is government and hospital respectively.Conclusion Increasing the medical insurance policy advocacy,promoting the reform of medical insurance payment methods,strengthening the dominant position of gov-ernment control medical costs and rationally allocating the medical resources conduce to reduce the medical costs rising.