September 16, 2006 Asia's leading business school, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) held the second annual China Health Care Forum at their Shanghai Campus.
Representatives from different sectors of the health care industry met today to discuss "New Horizons for China's Medical Reform". The topic was timely given the findings from a report cosponsored by State Council's Development Research Centre and the World Health Organisation concluding that the current health system in China is "basically unsuccessful" due to inequality in access to medical services and low efficiency in the use of government funding.
The meeting highlighted the macro issues behind escalating and unaffordable medical costs and considered practical options from the perspectives of government, scholars, pharmaceutical and health insurance companies and hospitals.
Professor Zhu Xiaoming, President of CEIBS and Prof. Rolf D. Cremer, Dean and Vice President of CEIBS gave a welcome address to over 350 guests packed into the school's Petrochemical Auditorium. The list included international experts, government officials, senior hospital executives, representatives from the pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, CEIBS MBA and EMBA alumni and sponsors.
Mr Han Qide, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of PRC congratulated the school for providing the opportunity for industry officials to meet and exchange ideas.
The agenda consisted of six sessions throughout the day including strategic choice in the development of China's health care system, establishment of a fair and efficient medical delivery system, medical insurance, the role of the pharmaceutical industry and the creation of a modern medicine distribution system.
During the first session, "Strategic Choice in the Development of China's Health Care System", Prof. Sir Andy Haines, Director London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discussed the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) tax-based model followed by a presentation from Dr Magdalene Rosenmoller, Lecturer of IESE Business School on the Social Health Insurance Model
Prof. Shi Guang, Director General of the Department of Health Policy Research of the China Health Economic Institute, Ministry of Health of PRC, gave a thought provoking talk on China's current health service model and the goal for selecting a future health system based on one that benefits all citizens and ensures the availability of basic health services and improves people's health status.
The underlying sentiment on conclusion of this session was while the NHS model and the Social Insurance Model are both effective in providing universal medical coverage, China is a unique country with it's own set of challenges and therefore must make the strategic choice of adopting a health system that best fits it's own needs.
Prof. Yin Dakui, Chairman of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, Former Deputy Minister of Health of PRC, lead the second session from a government perspective "The Establishment of a Fair and Efficient Medical Delivery System" outlining the Chinese experience why health reform to date has not been very successful.
Dr Henk Bekedam, Chief Representative in China, World Health Organisation, reflected on the European experience of health reform offering suggestions for China: including clarifying and strengthening the role of government in health, considering universal coverage to essential services, changing the method of provider payment, putting in place cost containment tools and mechanisms, improving the quality of health services and introducing health system indicators to focus on accessibility to quality of health services.
His presentation was followed by Dr Liu Yuanli, Director of China Initiative, Department of Population and International Health of Harvard School of Public Health, who shared lessons learnt in North America, in particular expanding insurance to give top priority to vulnerable or disadvantaged people and secondly, controlling major risk factors that may contribute to chronic illnesses. He discussed the fact that China is the largest cigarette consumer in the world and suggested reducing this with a "sin-tax" as a health and financing strategy and the implementation of vigorous behaviour-changing campaigns.
In session three, speakers who looked at the role of "Medical Insurance in Terms of Making Health Care Affordable" were Mr Yao Hong, Director General of the Health Care Insurance Department, Ministry of Labor and Social Services of PRC, Dr Andrew Lee, Vice President of Reward Health Insurance Co Ltd and Mr Jamie McCarry, President and CEO of Axa-Minmetals Assurance Co.,Ltd. The speakers discussed the expected expansion of commercial health insurance in China's medical security system and the key role of health insurance in providing quality health.
Throughout the day a repeating theme across the sessions was that a healthy population will help drive the economy through to the next stage of development by promoting social harmony and reducing the disparities in access to health services.
The fourth session dealt with the pharmaceutical industry and its impact on health expenditure. Industry leaders Mr Xu Jingren, Chairman of Yangtze River Pharmacy Group and Dr Jorg Ostertag, President of Eli Lilly China commented on how to drive the upgrading of the industrial structure to facilitate the establish of a reasonable drug price system .
Continuing the discussion on drug prices, session five addressed the influence China's wholesale and retail market has had on high drug costs in the past and looked at solutions for creating a modern medicine distribution system to drive the price of medicine down in the future.
As the meeting drew to a close the final session titled "Looking Forward", Mr Ge Yanfeng, Deputy Chief of the Social Development Research Department, Development Research Center of the State Council of PRC, put into perspective the prospects for China's health reform. He noted that despite the changes to China's health systems over the past 20 years some outstanding achievements have been made however to enable the key objective of "healthcare for everyone"s future reforms are inevitable.
The day closed with an address by Prof. Pedro Nueno, Executive President of CEIBS.
