China has made significant progress toward universal health coverage that meets the reasonable expectations of the po pulation and addresses the perennial patient complaint of “kan bing nan \, kan bing gui” (getting healthcare is difficult and expensive). Yet many challenges remain. The recently announced 13th 5-year-plan for deepening health system reform issued by the PRC State Council acknowle dges that reforms have entered a difficult “high water phase\,” with goals that include establishing effective referral systems and expanding family d octor contracting systems to promote trustworthy first-contact care in the community rather than at crowded hospital outpatient departments. This talk will summarize developments in China’s health reforms since the turn of th e 21st century\, including recent empirical evidence on the impa ct of expansion of social health insurance on healthcare utilization and su rvival\, and remaining challenges in areas such as public hospital reforms\ , moving away from fee-for-service payment\, and strengthening primary care .
About the speaker:
Karen Eggleston is a facu lty member at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center\, Stan ford University\, and the director of the center's Asia Health Policy Progr am. She is also a fellow at Stanford's Center for Health Policy/Primary Car e and Outcomes Research (CHP/PCOR)\, and a Faculty Research Fellow of the N ational Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Her research focuses on compara tive healthcare systems and health reform in Asia\, especially China\; gove rnment and market roles in the health sector\; payment incentives\; healthc are productivity\; and the economics of the demographic transition. Egglest on teaches through Stanford's East Asian studies program and is also affili ated with Stanford's public policy program.
Eggleston earned her PhD in public policy from Harvard University in 1999. She was a consultant to t he World Bank on their project on health service delivery in rural China in 2004\, and to China's Ministry of Finance and the Asian Development Bank f rom 2010 to 2011 for an evaluation of China's health reforms. She is a memb er of the Research Advisory Group for the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
Light lunch will be provided.
