Deepening healthcare reform with a focus on public welfare
Recently by the Ministry of Health, the State Food and Drug Administration, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine co-hosted the first China Health Forum was informed that in deepening the process of health care reform, China will further take the public welfare as the main line, more financial and material resources to the grassroots level, more talent and technology to the grassroots level, to improve the public welfare and fairness of the basic medical and health care services, and to actively promote China's health care and the development of pharmaceutical industry. 
The reporter learnt from the forum that last year China's health care expenditure reached 390.2 billion yuan, an increase of 38.1% over the previous year, of which the central government's health care expenditure reached 127.7 billion yuan, an increase of 49.5% over the previous year, and these funds have been invested in the basic medical protection, basic public health services and grassroots service system construction. This year's health care reform capital investment budget arrangements for 443.9 billion yuan, by next year to complete the three-year new 85 billion yuan target.
It is understood that, for the national basic drug system, the Ministry of Health will appropriately expand the scope of basic drug catalogue drugs, and urgently introduce a more complete national basic drug catalogue, accelerate the introduction of national basic drug bidding and purchasing norms. At present, the Development and Reform Commission and other relevant departments are working closely to develop a standardised policy documents such as the approval and procurement of essential medicines, through the reform of the institutional mechanism, not only to protect the people's rights and interests in health, but also to safeguard the sustained and healthy development of the pharmaceutical production and distribution industry. In the area of medical protection, China's medical insurance now covers 1.25 billion people nationwide, and this year it is proposed that seven rehabilitation programmes for persons with disabilities will be uniformly included in the scope of medical protection, and that children's major illnesses, especially leukaemia and congenital heart disease, will also be included in the scope of basic medical protection.
