2018年CRI China endeavoring to push the healthcare reform: NPC deputies

 

Deputies to this year's National People's Congress are suggesting a new series of changes to the health care system, including an increase in basic medical insurance benefits, are going to help ease a growing burden on the country's medical system.

Following a trend which began in 2009, Chinese Premier¹ Li Keqiang's latest government work report to this year's NPC session has outlined a series of steps to add to the government's Healthy China strategy.

Specifically, government subsidies² for basic health insurance for rural and non-working urban residents will be increased by 40 yuan, half of which will be allocated³ to the serious disease insurance scheme.

Chen Jingyu is the deputy head of the People's Hospital in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and also a deputy to this year's NPC.

He says the new plans are a welcome ammendment.

"The central government has been doing a lot in the area of health care reform, including a wider coverage⁴ of medical insurance and the creation of national insurance networks. These plans have been worked out very quickly. Since last year the government has also started working on integrating regional medical resources and setting up priority diagnosis⁵ and treatment programs, which are the focus of the current reform process. At the same time, private hospitals and other health care providers are being encouraged to attract different groups of patients."

The increase in the basic subsidies for rural and non-working urban residents is specifically designed to help poorer people.

NPC deputy Liu Fan is the head of orthopedics at Affiliated⁶ Hospital with Nantong University.

"Since 2011, the subsidies for basic health insurance have increased from 240 yuan to 450 yuan, which is already a big step forward. Now that an extra 40 yuan has been added, the subsidies are now double what they originally started out as. This reflects that our government is doing what it can to help average people benefit from the policies. Patients can now be directly reimbursed⁷ at the place where they receive treatment. This is very convenient for specific groups such as migrant workers."

Priority diagnosis and treatment has been made one of the top priorities in the current health care reform program.

Trialed in certian cities in the past few years, it involves three levels of health care, with doctors referring patients based on the seriousness of their illness.

The ultimate goal is to distribute patients to different facilities, based on the level of care they need.

This is considered a priority, as many people in China tend to distrust community health care facilities, and will often gravitate to major centers, such as Beijing, in search of the best health care they can find, regardless of the seriousness of their illness.

This puts a massive burden on major health care centers.

Gan Huatian is an NPC deputy and a professor at Sichuan University's West China Hospital.

"The key to breaking the difficulty of seeing doctors is the priority diagnosis and treatment program. This has already been proved by many countries. To make the mechanism⁸ work, we need to increase the overall capabilities⁹ of personnel at primary hospitals. Only when the general practitioners¹⁰ at the primary level can diagnose illnesses accurately¹¹ and refer patients appropriately will patients begin to trust them. We also think that the incomes of primary doctors should also be increased so that more competent doctors will be willing to work at the primary levels."

However, deputies to the NPC do concede that the priority diagnosis and treatment program will be slow to accept among patients.

As such, they suggest that calls for a fully¹² subsidized public health care system in China remains¹³ unattainable at this point.

1 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

2 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

4 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

5 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

6 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

7 reimbursed   

v.偿还，付还( reimburse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Any out-of-pocket expenses incurred on the firm's business will be reimbursed. 由公司业务产生的开销都可以报销。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Employees are reimbursed for any legal fees incurred when they relocate. 员工调往异地工作时，他们可以报销由此产生的所有法律服务费用。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

9 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

10 practitioners   

n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师）

参考例句：

• one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction 最了不起的科幻小说家之一
• The technique is experimental, but the list of its practitioners is growing. 这种技术是试验性的，但是采用它的人正在增加。 来自辞典例句

11 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

12 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。