The Main Challenges Facing Social Policy Makers in Less Developed Countries: A Case Study of Healthcare in China

Abstract

Population ageing brings additional challenges to many countries around the world. As China became the first country in the world to have more than 1 billion people aged 60 and above in 2010, this has put forward higher requirements for the amount of medical resources, quality of medical services, reliability and fairness in China. Providing a comprehensive health care system is a major challenge for policymakers. The purpose of this article is to discuss the challenges facing policymakers in less developed countries. This paper selects the Chinese healthcare system as a case study for analysis. To explore the effectiveness of the Chinese government's measures to formulate relevant basic medical security policies, reform the medical insurance system and subsidy levels, and comprehensively cover medical insurance. The study found that while health insurance levels have grown significantly, there are still challenges in coordinating programs, and many management and financing issues have arisen in the sustainable development of hospital services. Finally, it will describe how policymakers can use the current health insurance system to address these challenges. This article will discuss in detail two specific challenges facing the health care reform process, one is the discussion on the coverage and segmentation of medical insurance, and the other is the analysis on the future reform of public hospitals.