Restoring the balance: The Dynamics of decline of China's Health System with Economic Market Reforms

摘要

China's economic transition from a planned soviet economy to a socialist market economy has resulted in substantial changes to its health system, with a significant impact on health outcomes and equity of access. This paper extends recent US health reform system dynamics work to synthesise the China health reform story in causal loop diagrams and illustrate it with available trend data. The analysis is based on translated papers from a high level Chinese Government think tank to plan health system changes for the next Five Year Period (the Flourishing Society). Its main recommendations include extending financial coverage, focus on upstream interventions (public health, prevention and common disease interventions), and strengthening government responsibility) This natural experiment can provide insights into the problems associated with transition from hierarchical to market control mechanisms and the linkage between the overall socio-economic context and health care.