Health governance and healthcare reforms in China

Abstract

This article examines the role of health governance in shaping the outcomes of healthcare reforms in China. The analysis shows that the failure of reforms during the 1980s and 1990s was in part due to inadequate attention to key aspects in health governance, such as strategic interactions among government, providers and users, as well as incentive structures shaping their preferences and behaviour. Although more recent reforms seek to correct these flaws, they are insufficiently targeted at the fundamental governance problems that beset the sector. The article suggests that the Chinese government needs to heighten its efforts to enhance health governance and change the ways providers are paid if it is to succeed in achieving its goal of providing health care to all at affordable cost.