A special team has been created to cure the disease plaguing the
nation's healthcare system: exorbitant costs.
The team will be formed of 11 departments including the Ministry
of Health, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC),
and the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).
Their main task will be to co-ordinate efforts to cut costs,
with a particular focus on prices of drugs.
At the moment many of these 11 departments already play a role
in regulating the healthcare sector, but due to poor co-ordination
many problems are not being solved.
Experts cite high drug costs, profit-oriented hospitals and
widespread lack of insurance as the chief concerns in the
sector.
"Medical reform cannot be done by the Ministry of Health alone,"
Wang Dongsheng, deputy director of the Social Development
Department of NDRC, told journalists at a health industry forum in
Shanghai, which opened on Sunday.
Currently medical insurance is managed by the Ministry of Labour
and Social Security. The NDRC is in charge of approving drug
factory establishment and drug prices, while the SFDA is authorized
to approve new drugs.
"Better co-ordination between these departments is vital," Wang
said.
An example used at the forum to illustrate the co-ordination
challenge was over drug pricing.
The NDRC over the past couple of years has frequently announced
drug price cuts.
However, once a price is cut many factories will stop producing
the brand of drug. They will then register the same drug by a new
name with the SFDA, thus circumventing the price cut.
China has about 6,000 approved drug manufacturers, and at least
10,000 drug marketing companies. 80 percent of drugs are sold in
hospitals, so cases of bribery of doctors are frequent.
If the cost of a medicine is US$10, the factory takes US$3, the
marketing company US$2 and the hospital US$5, said an NDRC official
at the forum.
Meanwhile, 40 percent of China's 500 million urban residents and
80 percent of 800 million rural residents have no medical
insurance. This makes many of them hesitant to see doctors even if
they are seriously ill, according to a national survey in 2003.
Because of high drug prices and the lack of medical insurance,
about half of patients in China who need treatment do not seek it,
the survey found.
(China Daily September 19, 2006)