China's total health expenditure only accounts for 5.1% of GDP

2012-09-13 source: People's daily news on the afternoon of September 12, 2012, the 2012 Summer Davos forum was held in Tianjin from September 11 to 13, with the theme of "shaping the future economy" At the sub forum of "sustainable health system in the future economy", Chen Zhu, Minister of health, said that China's total health expenditure accounts for only 5.1% of GDP, and there is still a long way to go The following is the summary of Chen Zhu's speech: Chen Zhu: distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I am very honored to be invited to the 2012 Summer Davos forum Just now, the moderator asked a good question I would like to introduce three aspects to you, namely, the reform and development of China's medical and health undertakings First of all, China is vigorously promoting the concept and progress of this round of medical reform In March 2009, the Chinese government issued opinions on deepening the reform of the medical and health system, marking the start of a new round of medical reform in China The overall goal of this round of medical reform is to establish and improve the basic medical and health system covering urban and rural residents, and provide safe, effective, convenient and cheap medical and health services for the masses In the past three years of reform, the Chinese government has adhered to the basic concept of providing the basic medical and health system as a public product to the whole people, coordinated as a whole, overcome difficulties, promoted five key points, and completed all tasks of the three-year medical reform as scheduled Let me report to you on the results First, the national health indicators continued to improve The maternal mortality rate dropped from 34.2 per 100000 to 26.1 per 100000 That is to say, compared with 2008, the infant mortality rate dropped from 14.9 per 1000 to 12.1 per 1000 It should be said that China has also made an important contribution to the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Second, the basic medical security system has been basically established, forming the world's largest basic medical security network, especially the new cooperative medical system covering 830 million farmers Third, the allocation and utilization of health resources are more optimized, public financial investment is inclined to grass-roots rural areas and public health, and the gap between urban and rural areas and between regions in health development and health level is gradually narrowing Fourth, the structure of health investment tends to be reasonable, and health equity gradually improves The proportion of personal health expenditure in total health expenditure decreased from 40.4% in 2008 to 34.9% in 2011 According to the development of China's social economy and the nature of medical and health services, the Chinese government adheres to the basic principle of strengthening the grass-roots construction mechanism Basic medical services are to protect all residents, especially the low-income people The government bears the obligatory main responsibility The main purpose of non basic medical services is to meet the people's multi-level and diversified medical and health care needs Market and social capital play a major role With the improvement of economic development and financial security, the scope of basic medical services will gradually expand The second issue I want to talk about is the relationship between health and economic development As we all know, health is the main goal of economic development, but also an important guarantee of economic development In addition to protecting the labor force, health care industry indirectly promotes economic development, but also directly participates in and contributes to economic development Research shows that the contribution of human capital to economic development in developed countries is as high as 70%, while that in China is about 35% The contribution of China's human capital to economic growth has great room for improvement From the trend of this year, the traditional health care industry, such as medical service industry, biomedical industry, medical insurance industry is in the ascendant, and the emerging health care industry, such as elderly care, medical tourism, leisure health care and other industries, has begun to flourish In many developed countries, the health industry has become the main industrial sector, as well as in China, with research and calculation, According to the international standard of medical service personnel per 1000 population, more than 12 million jobs need to be added in China, such as doctors and nurses It can be seen that the health care industry is not only an important means to maintain residents' health and improve human capital, but also an important measure and effective way to maintain growth and adjust structure, It is a new economic growth point and an important pillar industry in the future From the perspective of international trends, in general, with the improvement of national economic development level, the proportion of total health expenditure in GDP is also increasing In 2010, the average proportion of total health expenditure in GDP of low-income countries was 6.2%, that of high-income countries was 8.1%, that of Brazil and India in BRICs countries was 9% and 8.9%, respectively At present, the proportion of total health expenditure in GDP of China is only 5.1%, which means China has a long way to go