Will patients be rewarded?

摘要

Rarely in Communist China's history has such an important government policy been debated so openly for so long. Such deference to public opinion would be cause for celebration were it not for the urgency of the issue: health-care reform. After years of dithering amid mounting public anger at the often prohibitive cost of treatment, the government has a plan.rnTwo documents issued on April 6th and 7th set out reform targets through to 2020 as well as more specific objectives for the next three years. The broad goals remain unchanged from draft proposals released last October after a delay of several months. Officials say 200m Chinese have no insurance now. But by 2020 China is to have a "relatively robust" government-financed health-insurance system, with more than 90% of citizens covered by 2011. Also unchanged is the figure of 850 billion yuan ($125 billion), which the government said in January it intended to spend on these reforms during 2009 and the two subsequent years.