Health Service Delivery in China: A Literature Review

Karen Eggleston, Li Ling, Meng Qingyue, Magnus Lindelow and Adam Wagstaff

No 3978, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The authors report the results of a review of the Chinese-language and English-language literatures on service delivery in China, asking how well China's health care providers perform, what determines their performance, and how the government can improve it. They find current performance leaves room for improvement in terms of quality, responsiveness to patients, efficiency, cost escalation, and equity. The literature suggests that these problems will not be solved by simply shifting ownership to the private sector, or by simply encouraging providers-public and private-to compete with one another for individual patients. In contrast, substantial improvements could be (and in some places have already been) made by changing the way providers are paid-shifting away from fee-for-service and the distorted price schedule toward prospective payments. Active purchasing by insurers could further improve outcomes.

Keywords: Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Health Law; Health Economics&Finance; Health Systems Development&Reform; Population Policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-dev, nep-hea, nep-sea and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Journal Article: Health service delivery in China: a literature review (2008)
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