Healthcare remedies

That the basic healthcare security net-work now covers all 1.3 billion residents shows what China's healthcare reform has achieved since further reform was initiated three years ago.

The proportion of hospital expenses patients get reimbursed has increased to 70 percent from 54 percent for urban residents and 48 percent for rural residents. The basic medicine system that has been promoted in local county-level hospitals has cut the average cost of hospital treatments by 9.46 percent.

The central government has also invested 43 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) in supporting the renovation and construction of 2,233 county-level hospitals, 6,200 township clinics and more than 25,000 village clinics. At the same time 4.15 billion yuan has been spent in establishing more than 2,000 community clinics in urban areas.