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Healthcare plan unclear

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-18 15:40

The country needs an all encompassing healthcare system, and not a general and problem-specific one, says an article in the Procuratorial Daily. The following is an excerpt:

The State Council, the country's Cabinet, sought public opinion on a new healthcare scheme draft on October 14. The much-waited healthcare document is full of plans and ideas at the macro level, and has many generalized descriptions of policies and shaky visions.

These visions are almost impossible to fructify if the thousands of policies in the document are implemented in letter and spirit. That would make it imperative to find a way of connecting the macro healthcare plan with concrete public expectations.

It is obvious that people have very concrete and specific expectations from the healthcare scheme. For instance, could this correspondent join the basic healthcare insurance system if he were a freelance journalist? Or, could a person suffering from a major ailment, but without enough money, get the government's support for treatment? Some other specific important issues are the nature of relationship between patients and hospitals, and prices of medicines. Ordinary people can hardly come up with specific and concrete enough suggestions when faced with such a macro healthcare scheme.

It is difficult to understand what the document wants to say. Hence, people could feel that something substantial is missing in the draft. It is not the State Council's intention to limit the scope of suggestions to experts. But the too general healthcare scheme has created a high threshold for those who can advise on or question the document. As a result, ordinary people either seem unable to express what they have in mind or can say something that is unrelated to the plan per se.

Another problem with over-general healthcare plan is enforcement. The more macro the healthcare, the less controllable and workable it will be. That's why the public deserves a streamlined, detailed and problem-solving healthcare scheme.