-China's Medical Insurance System and the Status of Medical Treatment and Health!-

With the official announcement of the State Council of the People's Republic of China's decision regarding a basic medical insurance system in 1998, a basic medical insurance system for urban employees in Chinese cities was established as the biggest pillar for reform of China's medical insurance system, and the country's medical insurance system was greatly reformed. On the other hand, as of March 2005, 44.8% of the urban population and 79.0% of the rural population still did not possess medical insurance. It is very difficult to precisely understand and grasp an overall picture of China's peculiar and complex medical insurance system, which differs notably from that of Japan.

With reference to the circumstances of establishment of China's medical insurance system, this report examines the content of the medical insurance system for urban employees established in recent years and explains the basic framework and scope of application to pharmaceutical products.

In addition, the roles of medical treatment and health administrative organizations related to medical insurance are interpreted with the incorporation of various statistical data such as movement of the population, medical treatment and health, and the status of hospitals. Furthermore, prospects for the medical insurance system in rural areas, where reform is underway, are also outlined. We are confident that this report will be of use in comprehending the turbulent status of medical treatment, pharmaceuticals, and the insurance market in China as well as future prospects from the fundamentals, and making forecasts for the future.

*	Make-up and roles of China's medical treatment, health and medical insurance administrative organizations
*	Basic situation such as China's population composition/policy
*	China's aging and urbanization
*	China's health resources and administration of hospital classification
*	Situation of Chinese hospital scales, doctors, and facilities
*	Details of transformation and reform in China's medical insurance system
*	Basic medical insurance framework, scope of application to pharmaceutical products, [national basic medical insurance, worker's accident compensation insurance pharmaceutical products registers] (2004)
*	Supplementary medical insurance, medical treatment at public expense, social aid
*	Participation in basic medical insurance, medical insurance funding revenue and expenditure situation

This report cites numerous direct data sources including official notices from the State Council of the People's Republic of China's Labor and Social Security Department and Health Department, the China Statistical Yearbook, the China Health Yearbook, and local data, and a vast amount of intelligence and data indispensable for entering the China market is incorporated. Furthermore, in compiling this report, advice from China health and medical treatment researchers regarding the composition of the report was received.
In the future, we plan to edit publications as a series on medical treatment in China containing such topics as reform of the medical treatment system, reform of the pharmaceutical product production and distribution system, clinical trials, and pharmaceutical applications.