The Chinese Health System in Transition

This book provides an overview of the ongoing transition in China's health system, especially focusing on the new healthcare reform initiated in 2009. First, it reviews the changes in China's healthcare system from the 1950s to 2008, establishing the situation when the reform was introduced. The book subsequently analyzes the social and economic context in which the health system is embedded. Since the primary focus is on the new healthcare reform, the book introduces the blueprint and the year-for-year development of the new healthcare reform, as well as the specific reforms in health financing, public hospitals, and primary care. Given its central importance in the health system, the book also described major trends in long-term care in the past several years. In addition, it examines the health policy-making process with a case study of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme of China. Lastly, the book assesses the performance of China's health system and predicts future developmental trends.

Dr. Lijie Fang is an Associate Professor, and deputy director, at the Department of Social Policy, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She received her PhD of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China. She worked as a two-years post-doctor fellow in Tsinghua University of China during 2008-2010, and as a visiting Ford Foundation Fellow at the Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science from 2013-2014. Currently, she's working as a visiting fellow at UN Institute for Social Development Study, as well as a collaborating researcher in the New Directions in Social Policy project. Her research is mainly focused on health policy, elderly service, community development, and welfare regime. She's the author of Annual Health Report of China, which is a regular chapter of The Blue Book of China's Society, in the past four years (2012-2015). She has been a consultant in the departments of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Central Government in China. She is currently conducting, at the request of the local government, some pilot projects on local innovation of social policy. She is a co-organizer of a comparative study network "Social Policy in Greater China", which is composed of seven universities and institutes from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong; as well as an initiator and organizer of the China Alliance of Local Innovation, in which 8 county governments of China, their social organization partners, and many researchers are working together to improve the local innovation of social policy. She is also the co-director of the "Social Policy Review", a by-annual book series of China.

Introduction: an analysis framework of health system in transition.- The history of health system of China (1949-2008).- The context of the new healthcare reform of China.- Health risks and healthcare demands in current China.- The blueprint and development of the new healthcare reform of China.- The health financing reform.- The reform of primary care.- The reform of public hospital.- The construction of long-term care scheme.- The agenda-setting of health policy: a case study of NCMS.- Conclusion: how to understand the health system of China.