China progresses with health reform but challenges remain.

摘要

Forests of apartment buildings, endless new roads, and whole cities where just years ago there was empty space: the landscape across China is being remade by economic growth and urbanisation at an extraordinary speed and scale. Less visible but just as important are the ongoing changes being enacted in the country's health system, reforms touching on nearly every aspect of the way health care is financed and delivered for China's 1.3 billion citizens. The ambitious plan, announced in April, 2009, attempts to increase the accessibility, equity, and quality of health care and to reassert government control over a sector of the economy that for the past 30 years had been largely left to the will of the market. With the implementation of the reforms now approaching deadlines for several 2011 targets, it is becoming apparent which areas have made progress and those in which more intractable challenges remain.