Health Care in China Faces Both Chances, Challenges

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 23, 2003

Health Care in China Faces Both Chances, Challenges

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Health care in China will have to handle new opportunities and challenges as it undergoes reform and development in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang said Wednesday.

More and better medical services will be needed in the coming years due to social development and the variety of diseases in China, a country with nearly 1.3 billion residents, Zhang said.

China is witnessing great diversification and is tending towards various levels of medical services, the minister told a national health conference that opened in Beijing Wednesday.

The income of families in urban areas is expected to be three times as much as its current level in 2020 and there will be 120 per cent more demand for basic medical services.

In rural areas, family incomes are expected to be 3.2 times as much as their current level in 2020, bringing 64 per cent greater demand for basic medical services.

Meanwhile, China's rural population is expected to drop by 300 million by 2020, making its urban population rise by that amount. People who become wealthier than ever hope to have higher-quality medical services, Zhang said.

In contrast, 20 million urban residents and 30 million rural people are still under the State's absolute poverty line.

Another 60 million rural residents are only barely able to dress warmly and eat their fill. These low-income people are unable to afford the costs of a serious disease.

China's more than 800 million rural residents make up about 70 per cent of the total population but only use about 30 per cent of the country's medical resources.

In 20 years, there will be 170 million people aged over 60, which will make the number of patients with various chronic diseases increase to 55 per cent of all patients.

At the same time, some epidemics, such as various sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis, are also spreading rapidly in China.

The ministry reported in June 2002 that China has 1 million HIV/AIDS victims. It said the incidence of HIV/AIDS is increasing at an annual rate of 30 per cent. China also has the world's second biggest number of tuberculosis patients, at about 5 million.

Experts called on China to invest more money to promote public health, which is vital for the macroeconomic development.

The total health expenditure of China in 2000 represented only 5.3 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, just 0.3 per cent higher than the minimum level recommended by the World Health Organization, said Hu Angang of Beijing's Tsinghua University.

This year, more effort will be done to promote the pilot work of the "co-operative medical service'' -- a new system that is expected to extricate rural residents from their present dilemma of often being dragged into greater poverty by disease.

The system will be established throughout the country by 2010.

The State will put 10 yuan (US$1.20) every year into the medical account of each rural dweller in China's central and western regions from this year to help set up the system, a type of social insurance that can cover part of people's medical costs. (China Daily news)

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