The health status of residents of China and India lags behind relative to other populations, and health gains in each country have been uneven across subpopulations. Each health system provides little protection against financial risk, and patient satisfaction is a lower priority than it should be. This paper compares the Chinese and Indian health systems to determine what approaches to improving health in these two countries do and do not work.
This volume provides a comprehensive review of China's healthcare system and policy reforms in the context of the global economy. Following a value-chain framework, the 16 chapters cover the payers, the providers, and the producers (manufacturers) in China's system. It also provides a detailed analysis of the historical development of China's healthcare system, the current state of its broad reforms, and the uneasy balance between China's market-driven approach and governmental regulation. Most importantly, it devotes considerable attention to the major problems confronting China, including chronic illness, public health, and long-term care and economic security for the elderly. Burns and Liu have assembled the latest research from leading health economists and political scientists, as well as senior public health officials and corporate executives, making this book an essential read for industry professionals, policymakers, researchers, and students studying comparative health systems across the world.
Health policy makers in developing, low income countries are often faced with difficult choices and tradeoffs in allocating the rather limited resources at their disposal. This paper analyzes the varied approaches taken by the Governments of China and India which resulted in differential levels of gain in health indicators. An attempt has been made to synthesize policy implications for health policy analysts in developing countries that would optimize the health outcomes for a given budgetary allocation.
The population of Asia is growing both larger and older. Demographically the most important continent on the world, Asia's population, currently estimated to be 4.2 billion, is expected to increase to about 5.9 billion by 2050. Rapid declines in fertility, together with rising life expectancy, are altering the age structure of the population so that in 2050, for the first time in history, there will be roughly as many people in Asia over the age of 65 as under the age of 15. It is against this backdrop that the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) asked the National Research Council (NRC), through the Committee on Population, to undertake a project on advancing behavioral and social research on aging in Asia. Aging in Asia: Findings from New and Emerging Data Initiatives is a peer-reviewed collection of papers from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand that were presented at two conferences organized in conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, Indonesian Academy of Sciences, and Science Council of Japan; the first conference was hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, and the second conference was hosted by the Indian National Science Academy in New Delhi. The papers in the volume highlight the contributions from new and emerging data initiatives in the region and cover subject areas such as economic growth, labor markets, and consumption; family roles and responsibilities; and labor markets and consumption.
Most of the existing literature on health system reform in China deals with only one part of the reform process (for example, financing reform in rural areas, or the new system of purchasing pharmaceuticals), or consists of empirical case studies from particular cities or regions. This book gives a broad overview of the process of health system reform in China. It draws extensively both on the Western literature in health economics and on the experience of health care reform in a number of other countries, including the US, UK, Holland, and Japan, and compares China''s approach to health care reform with other countries. It also places the process of health system reform in the context of re-orienting China''s economic policy to place greater emphasis on equity and income distribution, and analyzes the interaction of the central and local governments in designing and implementing the reforms. This book will be of interest to policymakers, academics, students of health economics, health policy and health administration, and people who are interested in Chinese social policy. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Health Policy in China: Introduction and Background (189 KB). Contents: Introduction: Health Policy in China: Introduction and Background; Health Systems and Health Reform: International Models; Main Components of Health Reform: Strengthening China''s Social Insurance System; Providing Primary Care; The Hospital Sector and Hospital Reform; China''s National Drug Policy: A Work in Progress; Health Care and Harmonious Development in China: Health Policy and Inequality; Decentralized Government, Central-Local Fiscal Relations, and Health Reform; China''s Health System in the Future: Health Services in the Future: Social Insurance and Purchasing; China''s Future Health Care System: A Mixed Public-Private Model?. Readership: Policy makers, academics, students of health economics, health policy, and health administration, and people who are interested in Chinese social policy.
From earlier times, developed nations had come to the understanding that regular public health efforts will lead to an increase in the labor productivity and life expectancy thus contributing to the GDP in a positive manner. This understanding came about before there existed the spread of modern curative technologies. On the other hand, developing nations when hit by a wave globalization brought in modern technological services in the private sector, before a strong public sector could be established, thus neglecting the importance of a public health services.The development of Government and public healthcare centers across the nation is crucial to India's healthcare system. There exists a three-tier system in the Indian public healthcare system. The public funds in India have been directed towards tertiary rather than primary levels. World health statistics have indicated that India has the highest out of pocket private healthcare costs for families, among developing nations. Penetration of health insurance in India is low by international standards. Reserve Bank of India data for 2009-10 to 2016-17, shows that the Government has been spending around 7% of its GDP on Social Services. Education and health sectors accounted for 2.9% and 1.4% respectively in the year 2016-17. The Government as a policy measure should give top priority to increasing investment in the traditional healthcare sector. For secondary care, there should be a concentrated effort to achieve the Rashtriya Swathya BimaYojana(RSBY) target of insuring all individuals below poverty line. For primary care, government should not replace the private sector, but help make it better by enabling programmes of training unqualified doctors and keeping that training as a prerequisite to practice medicine. The research undertaken is a descriptive and diagnostic study to understand and explain the reasons underlying the nature of Public Healthcare system in India. An in-depth comparison has been made to highlight the strengths of the Indian Public Healthcare system and the areas Indian Public Healthcare system needs to develop to cater to the demands of a growing and developing democratic economy. The stratified sample includes the 2 leading economic powers-USA and China, to understand and contrast the private sector and public sector dominated progress of the two nations respectively.
Asian Medical Systems provide fascinating opportunities to observe directly practices that continue ancient scientific modes of thought, and to analyse the historical processes that meditate their relationship to modern science and technology. Three great traditions of medical science evolved during antiquity in the Chinese, Indian, and Mediterranean civilizations, all based on humoral conceptions of health and illness. Folk curers throughout the world continue to practice humoral medicine, but in Asia along educated physicians maintain its learned traditions. Thus, in these societies the great and little traditions of humoral medicine coexist with cosmopolitan medicine, which draws upon modern science and modes of professional organization. This volume has been designed to show how research on Asian medicine opens a new field of scholarship, the comparative study of medical systems. Such a book requires the skills of authors with many kinds of training, and those who have contributed essays to this volume are trained in history, sociology, anthropology, public health, pharmacology, epidemiology, cosmopolitan medicine, and philosophy.
In 2015, building on the advances of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals that include an explicit commitment to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. However, enormous gaps remain between what is achievable in human health and where global health stands today, and progress has been both incomplete and unevenly distributed. In order to meet this goal, a deliberate and comprehensive effort is needed to improve the quality of health care services globally. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide focuses on one particular shortfall in health care affecting global populations: defects in the quality of care. This study reviews the available evidence on the quality of care worldwide and makes recommendations to improve health care quality globally while expanding access to preventive and therapeutic services, with a focus in low-resource areas. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm emphasizes the organization and delivery of safe and effective care at the patient/provider interface. This study explores issues of access to services and commodities, effectiveness, safety, efficiency, and equity. Focusing on front line service delivery that can directly impact health outcomes for individuals and populations, this book will be an essential guide for key stakeholders, governments, donors, health systems, and others involved in health care.
Healthcare Policies and Systems in Europe and China, a product of an interdisciplinary European Union-funded project, comprehensively investigates opportunities for mutual integration in the healthcare sector of the two regions and analyses policies at both national and local levels, the legal environment, medical practices, as well as the state of respective healthcare industries and related businesses. The book sheds light on both the potential benefits and obstacles to the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, as well as practices and industries in Europe and China. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted throughout using tools and technical knowledge derived from the economics, social sciences, legal and medical fields.This edited volume seeks to provide guidelines and policy proposals for policy-makers both in Europe and China, as well as offer operational suggestions for companies working in or with China, to enhance bilateral trade and investment flows. It also presents medical evidence and economic/legal analysis that will help boost the integration of traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine through research studies. This is a recommended read for graduates, researchers and policy-makers seeking for a holistic understanding of healthcare policies and systems, both in theory and in practice.
This book analyses the role of public action in solving the problem of hunger in the modern world and is divided into four parts: Hunger in the modern world, Famines, Undernutrition and deprivation, and Hunger and public action.
