OBJECTIVE: To analyze the new rural cooperative medical system in Hunan from 2003 to 2009 and to provide reference for scientific decision making. METHODS: We dynamically analyzed the participation rate, fund raising and fund operation efficiency of the new rural cooperative medical system in the past 7 years. RESULTS: From 2003 to 2009, the participation rate increased from 60.7% to 91.22%, funding increased from 30 to 100 yuan/person, degree of hospitalization income from 26.75% to 41.63%, hospitalization rate from 4.57% to 8.26%, and cost of hospitalization times from 2389.46 to 2518.00 yuan. CONCLUSION Implementation of the new rural cooperative medical system is indeed a boon to farmers, and the enthusiasm of farmers' participation is significantly improved. We must strengthen the supervision of the designated medical institutions, to effectively reduce health care cost and the burden of medical expense of farmers.
China ; Cooperative Behavior ; Delivery of Health Care ; trends ; Hospitalization ; economics ; Humans ; Rural Health Services ; economics ; organization & administration

This paper introduces statistics related to the size and composition of Korea's total health expenditure. The figures produced were tailored to the OECD's system of health accounts. Korea's total health expenditure in 2009 was estimated at 73.7 trillion won (US$ 57.7 billion). The annual per capita health expenditure was equivalent to US$ PPP 1,879. Korea's total health expenditure as a share of gross domestic product was 6.9% in 2009, far below the OECD average of 9.5%. Korea's public financing share of total health expenditure increased rapidly from less than 50% before 2000 to 58.2% in 2009. However, despite this growth, Korea's share remained the fourth lowest among OECD countries that had an average public share of 71.5%. Inpatient, outpatient, and pharmaceutical care accounted for 32.1%, 33.0%, and 23.7% of current health expenditure in 2009, respectively. A total of 41.1% of current health expenditure went to hospitals, 28.1% to providers of ambulatory healthcare (15.9% on doctor's clinics), and 17.9% to pharmacies. More investment in the translation of national health account data into policy-relevant information is suggested for future progress.
Delivery of Health Care/economics/*trends ; Health Expenditures/statistics & numerical data/*trends ; Humans ; Republic of Korea

OBJECTIVE: To study the health service development in Hunan Province, and to find out the advantages and disadvantages, and to make tentative specific suggestions. METHODS: Comparison was made in Yunnan, Hunan, and Zhejiang Provinces in 4 major areas: health institutions, personnels, facilities, and funding. RESULTS: The overall health service of Hunan Province was good: The health resources increased, the allocations were reasonable, and the health expenditure decreased. Some problems appeared, such as backward primary health, shortage of medical talents, inefficient use of hospital beds, deducted government investment, increased business income, and large urban-rural gap. CONCLUSION There is urgent need to further develop health institutions and increase personnels, particularly improving the primary health care and making use of traditional Chinese medicine; improving the management of hospital beds to increase efficiency, increasing financial support to reduce the patients' burden, and ensuring the need of rural health care.
China ; Delivery of Health Care ; trends ; Health Services ; economics ; statistics & numerical data ; Health Services Administration ; Humans ; Rural Health ; economics

Child ; Child Health Services ; trends ; Delivery of Health Care ; organization & administration ; Education, Medical ; Hospitals, Pediatric ; economics ; organization & administration ; Humans ; Pediatrics ; trends ; Specialization ; Urban Population

China ; Delivery of Health Care ; economics ; Europe ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; statistics & numerical data ; trends ; Latin America ; Life Style ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; United States ; Western World