China’s Commercial Health Insurance

This book examines the financing of China’s health system, argues that present arrangements are not adequate and proposes an increased role for commercial health insurance as a way of overcoming the difficulties. Highlighting that China’s present social medical insurance system can only cover basic medical services, with the results that many Chinese people with higher income are going abroad for high-quality medical services and that doctors are not bringing in the salaries and obtaining the social status they expect, the book suggests that commercial health insurance offers a possible solution, in that it can help meet the demand of higher-income groups for better healthcare services while at the same time increasing the income of more competent medical professionals. The book goes on to consider the current state of China’s commercial insurance industry, outlining the various challenges that the industry needs to overcome if it is to fulfil an increased role, challenges such as greater specialization, increased capacity, structural reform, improved regulation and closer integration with China’s medical reform programme.

China Development Research Foundation is one of the leading economic think tanks in China, where many of the details of China’s economic reform have been formulated. Its work and publications therefore provide great insights into what the Chinese themselves think about economic reform and how it should develop.