Glamor Economics

Chapter 159

Chapter 20, Section 4, Never Be Afraid of Seeing a Doctor——Medical Reform

Healthcare reform has always been the focus of much attention.The previous medical reforms overemphasized marketization, resulting in expensive and difficult medical treatment for ordinary people.

"It is difficult and expensive to see a doctor", people often hear complaints like this.According to the third national health service survey data released by the Ministry of Health, about 48.9% of urban residents do not seek medical treatment when they are sick, and 29.6% of patients should be hospitalized instead of hospitalized.The medical reform plan has always affected the hearts of the Chinese people.

2009年1月21日，国务院常务会议审议并原则通过《关于深化医药卫生体制改革的意见》和《2009～2011年深化医药卫生体制改革实施方案》。新方案对目前各项医保制度未能覆盖的遗漏人群，如困难企业、农民工、在校大学生如何参加医疗保险，给出了明确的制度安排。新医改方案提出，各级政府预计在2009～2011即3年间投入8500亿元用于五项医改。

The five medical reforms focus on medical insurance, essential drugs, primary medical service system, equalization of public services, and public hospital reform.From the announcement of the guidance, to the finalization of the plan, to the implementation of the implementation plan, the new medical reform has finally entered a new journey of implementation and operation.

In terms of expanding medical insurance coverage, the new medical reform has a clearer timetable and scope of the population.That is, within three years, the participation rate of basic medical insurance for urban workers and residents and new rural cooperative medical insurance will reach more than 3%.For the "missing" groups that are not covered by the current medical insurance systems, such as how migrant workers participate in medical insurance, clear institutional arrangements are given.There are two ways for migrant workers to participate in medical insurance. One is that migrant workers with formal labor contracts in cities and towns can participate in urban employee medical insurance; the other is that migrant workers with relatively high mobility can participate in the new rural cooperative medical care.

Covering the population expanded to migrant workers and college students.The solution to the problem of "difficult enterprise employees and retirees to participate in insurance" is that the government will provide financial subsidies for them to participate in insurance.Difficult enterprises mostly refer to old state-owned enterprises that are struggling to operate. Because they cannot pay or cannot pay in full, the medical insurance rights and interests of employees and retirees cannot be guaranteed.

In addition to the above-mentioned groups, the revised medical reform plan also proposes a new target group covered by medical insurance—all college students included in urban residents' medical insurance.At present, students from key ministries or provincial-level key universities under the "unified recruitment" are still provided with public medical care, which is similar to civil servants, but some college students have been included in urban residents' medical insurance.The implementation of this reform means that students of all types of colleges and universities will no longer enjoy public medical care and will enter the medical insurance sequence.

At the same time, the level of financial subsidies for medical insurance will also increase.That is, by 2010, the subsidies for urban residents' medical insurance and new rural cooperative medical care will be increased to 120 yuan per person per year.

In addition, the medical reform plan also puts forward new policy requirements on the level of medical insurance protection and fund balance ratio.The new plan proposes to increase the ceiling of the new rural cooperative medical care and urban residents' medical insurance, that is, to increase the maximum reimbursement level of these two medical insurances.Compared with the 3 to 8 for urban employee medical insurance, the cap line for urban residents' medical insurance and new rural cooperative medical insurance is mostly 1 to 3.

According to the design idea of ​​the new medical reform, the difficulty and cost of medical treatment for ordinary people will be alleviated.About 80% of my country's existing medical resources are concentrated in cities, of which 30% are concentrated in large hospitals.The serious shortage of grassroots health services and rural health resources has directly led to the overcrowding of large hospitals and the lack of community hospitals.The new medical reform will be based on improving the construction of grassroots medical care, and will clearly focus on strengthening the construction of county-level hospitals, township health centers, and village clinics in remote areas.The huge investment of 1000 billion yuan in the new medical reform will focus on grassroots and rural areas. Among them, grassroots health construction will be listed as an important area for an additional [-] billion yuan of central investment.

In addition to the need for financial guarantees for capital and equipment, the new medical reform plan has also made it clear that it will focus on strengthening the training of professional and technical personnel and nursing staff in public health and rural health, so as to change the current situation of shortage of human resources in grassroots medical and health care.

In order to solve the problem of expensive medical treatment commonly reported by people, the new medical reform also provides certain institutional arrangements.Drug expenses in my country account for more than half of the total medical expenses, while the proportion of drug expenses in other countries is generally around 20%.In the new medical reform plan, the National Ministry of Health will set up the Department of Essential Drugs.This shows that the state will strictly manage the drug production process to ensure that the real "zero price difference drugs" can be circulated to the hands of citizens.Relevant experts said: "This medical reform measure will realize the real separation of medicine and medicine, which will solve the problem of expensive medical treatment for citizens to a large extent."

In fact, while we have expectations for the new medical reform, we should also realize that there is no absolutely perfect system in the world, so we should not demand that the new medical reform can solve all problems at once.However, as a basic right, people have reasons to demand relatively complete medical and health protection.Medical reform cannot wait, let alone disappoint the people.

[links to related words]

The new rural cooperative medical system is referred to as "new rural cooperative medical care" for short. It refers to a medical mutual aid system for farmers that is organized, guided, and supported by the government.Raise funds through individual payment, collective support and government funding.

Social medical insurance is a social insurance system established by the state and society in accordance with certain laws and regulations to provide basic medical needs protection for workers within the scope of protection in case of illness.The basic medical insurance fund consists of pooling funds and individual accounts.The basic medical insurance premiums paid by employees are all included in their personal accounts; the basic medical insurance premiums paid by employers are divided into two parts, one part is transferred to the personal account, and the other part is used to establish a pooling fund.

(End of this chapter)