<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">vern weitzel</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:vern.weitzel@gmail.com">vern.weitzel@gmail.com</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div><div><br> China’s central government plans to increase spending on health care by<br> 16.3% this year to roughly $26 billion, as part of a broader goal to improve<br> public health and to complete overhauls to the country’s health-care system<br>
it introduced in 2009.<br><br> As part of the nearly spending initiative, Beijing will increase its<br> per-capita funding for basic health services to 25 yuan, or $3.8, per<br> capita, up 67% from a year earlier, said China’s Premier Wen Jiabao on<br>
Saturday, in a speech delivering the government’s plans<br> <<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/05/china-npc-2011-reports-full-text/" target="_blank">http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/05/china-npc-2011-reports-full-text/</a>>for<br>
the upcoming year. The government will also allocate 76 billion yuan to<br> increase health-insurance coverage and to boost insurance subsidies to 200<br> yuan, up from 120, per person.<br><br> “We need to put people first, make ensuring and improving their<br>
well-being the starting point and goal of all our work,” Mr. Wen said in his<br> two-hour address.<br><br> The increase in health spending is a core part of China’s plan to<br> restructure its health-care system to provide affordable access to hospital<br>
care, medical treatment, and pharmaceuticals. In 2009, leaders pledged 850<br> billion yuan over three years for a measure to create universal access to<br> health care by creating basic medical insurance coverage for 90% of its 1.3<br>
billion people.<br><br> Including this year’s appropriations, the government has spent around<br> 450 billion yuan on health care.<br><br> Beijing also hopes that by lowering health-care costs, it will help drive<br>
domestic consumption. Households in China save 28% of their annual income,<br> according to investment research group CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, and fear<br> of high hospital bills is among the main reasons. Instead of saving for<br>
medical expenses, the government hopes consumers will buy consumer goods.<br><br> Health spending accounts for 3.2% of the government’s 5.43 trillion yuan<br> in overall expenditures this year, and will go toward the prevention of<br>
chronic and mental illnesses, as well as HIV and AIDS, Mr. Wen said. Nearly<br> 300 billion yuan, or 5.5% of total spending, is being spent on general<br> education.<br><br> China also appears to be stepping up its antismoking<br>
campaign<<a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/05/c_13762929.htm" target="_blank">http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/05/c_13762929.htm</a>>.<br> For the first time, the government’s five-year plan included a proposal to<br>
ban smoking in public places, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported<br> Saturday. According to Yao Naili, dean of the China Academy of the Chinese<br> Medical Sciences, more than 1 million people die from smoking-related<br>
diseases in China each year, Xinhua said.<br><br> “China’s pace of antismoking had been rather slow, therefore the decision<br> was not easy,” said Yue Bingfei, a member with the National Committee of the<br> Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a research fellow<br>
with the National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological<br> Products.<br><br> The funding also aims to increase insurance coverage and health<br> facilities for citizens in rural China. To fill a void of medical facilities<br>
beyond big cities, Mr. Wen said China will increase the number of county,<br> township, and village health networks, and will encourage nongovernment<br> organizations and foreign investors to open private practices.<br>
<br> China’s rural areas have been plagued by poor access to care, the World<br> Bank said in a recent report on China’s health-care<br>system<<a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/CHINAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22843780~menuPK:318956~pagePK:2865066~piPK:2865079~theSitePK:318950,00.html" target="_blank">http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/CHINAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22843780~menuPK:318956~pagePK:2865066~piPK:2865079~theSitePK:318950,00.html</a>>.<br>
Urban residents have been given access to specialty hospitals, university<br> research centers, and more-experienced doctors, while rural citizens face<br> subpar treatment and are often prescribed an “irrational” array of drugs,<br>
the report said.<br><br> Officials acknowledge the health divide. Minister of Health Chen Zhu was<br> quoted in state-owned English-language newspaper China Daily on Friday as<br> saying, “It’s also a worry that the capacity of grassroots-level hospitals<br>
is quite limited.” He added that 8,000 county-level hospitals don’t have<br> dialysis treatment facilities.<br><br> If China were to spend about 1.5% to 2% of its annual GDP, it could<br> guarantee national access to primary care, the World Bank report said,<br>
citing a recommendation from the World Health Organization. If China’s GDP<br> grows at the target 8% rate this year, the central government’s health care<br> spending would account for 0.4% of GDP.<br><br> <br><br>
<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/06/china-ramps-up-health-spending-targets-smokers/" target="_blank">http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/06/china-ramps-up-health-spending-targets-smokers/</a><br>
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