We need a scientific health insurance policy

A recent online notice by a leading public hospital in Southwest China's Guizhou province has come as a shock to many, as it says the clinical use of some high-cost medical appliances in departments such as ophthalmology, orthopedics, cardiology and general surgery has been suspended to help reduce health insurance costs.

China has the world's largest health insurance scheme covering about 1.3 billion people, so some hospitals' move to cut peripheral costs to ensure sustainable operations is understandable. But the Guizhou hospital's notice has touched a nerve with the people, because they are worried that the ever-strengthening cost control could mean poor medical treatment, especially at the end of the year when hospitals are close to running out of insurance money.

In China, the government is in charge of the basic health insurance policy, with public hospitals serving as the main service providers. Under a prepaid settlement, the social security department, the insurance operator in China, pays each hospital a lump sum at the beginning of a fiscal year as medicine and treatment costs for the whole year.