WB to launch a study on China's health reform

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim speaks during his visit at a press conference in Bejing. [Jiao Meng / Chinagate.cn]

The World Bank will launch a major study, searching for bold, sustainable options for China's health sector reforms, including in the private sector, said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim during his visit at a press conference in Bejing.

"China gets wealthier, it’s also determined to get healthier. The health sector is growing faster than the general economy. How this growth is managed will have a tremendous impact on China's economy," he said.

The World Bank will do this study in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the National Health and Family Planning Commission and with the World Health Organization. he hopes the study will help China accelerate its efforts to provide affordable, quality care especially for its aging population and rising middle class facing chronic diseases.

With urbanization, longer life expectancy, a more sedentary lifestyle, air pollution and more processed food, people are more prone to various diseases, especially diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases.

These chronic conditions now account for a staggering 80 percent of the overall disease burden in the country. More than 200 million patients suffer from hypertension and more than 90 million from diabetes.

Many of the challenges facing China today are similar to those faced by high income countries for decades – non-communicable diseases, aging, rising citizen demand and expectations, and unsatisfactory quality. China has an opportunity to leap frog decades of bad practice by developing new models of health care delivery and implementing them at scale.

In particular, China can move to a people-centered approach providing more health care for the money while tapping emerging information, communication, and medical technologies.

"If China is as successful in this process as we think they can be, we believe its health care reform can become a model for many other countries," he said.