More funding

Expanding the cooperative medical care system is one step in China's health care reform strategy to introduce cheaper medical services for all.

The government in April 2009 unveiled a three-year plan for national health care reform with an investment of at least 850 billion yuan.

The government had invested an "unprecedented" 500 billion yuan in health care since then, particularly helping grassroots medical institutions, Vice Minister of Health Zhang Mao told Xinhua on Nov. 30.

The reforms aim to solve the pressing complaints from the public, said Zhang, referring to criticisms that the Chinese health care system is difficult to access and increasingly unaffordable.

Since August 2009, more than half of China's medical clinics in rural townships and small urban communities have been offering essential medications at low prices thanks to the health care reform, said a statement issued after an executive meeting of the State Council, or the Cabinet, presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao last Monday.

To ensure low income-earners can afford essential medications, the State Council pledged to provide additional funding to the country's medical institutions in small townships and cities.

The statement called for government authorities to offer more subsidies for rural medical practitioners and village-based clinics.

The hospital in Yuzhong County's Sanjiaocheng Town joined the reform in July.

"The low prices of essential medications helped cut at least 20 percent off farmers' medical costs," said Wang Wenbin, director of the township hospital.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2010)