GOVERNMENT PROVIDED HEALTHCARE INSURANCE IN CHINA

Topic 

GOVERNMENT-PROVIDED HEALTHCARE INSURANCE IN CHINA

Instructions 

Task: Choose ONE question below. Make sure to use THEORIES OF POVERTY. You can find these in the lecture notes online. Also, use references from the reading lists online (“Readings” next to each lecture).

Chosen Question 

1. How has poor access to government-provided healthcare insurance contributed to increased poverty in China? Provide one example and policy solution.

Answer Preview 

According to Burns and Liu, (2013), the Chinese healthcare system faces complex challenges in availability and quality of healthcare, disparities in the urban and rural healthcare services, corruption, the increasing number of the elderly, and low-quality medical training. Burns and Liu also note that one of the major underlying challenges to the Chinese healthcare system is the wide but shallowly distributed health care insurance. According to (Yang and Zhao, 2009) the recent government reforms on health have led to the accessibility of health care insurance coverage to over 90 percent of the population, most of whom have never accessed health insurance cover before. As result, this has led to a very strained health care system due to the fact that almost everyone has a cover, and every patient wants to seek health services from the best public health specialists. This, therefore, leads to long queues at public health facilities, leading to poor quality services or inaccessibility of the services altogether.

Word Count: 4500