Changes of Adult Population Health Status in China from 2003 to 2008

Sun, Hongpeng; Zhang, Qiuju; Luo, Xiao; Quan, Hude; Zhang, Feng; Liu, Chang; Liu, Meina

Available health resources in China have been continuously increasing along with China's dramatic economic development [9, 10, 11] . From 2003 to 2009, the medical insurance system in China underwent rapid development and the government input among total health expenditure increased by 17%. A new type of rural cooperative medical care system, a form of community-based health insurance for the rural population, was piloted in some counties in 2003; coverage rate reached 72.6% by December 2004, and would gradually cover all rural residents by 2010 [12, 13] . At the same time, urban resident health insurance scheme included 80% of cities by the end of 2007. Urban employee basic health insurance scheme in China has covered all cities since 2008 [13, 14, 15] . With healthcare reform deepening, these systems made the proportion of out-of-pocket payments drop to 30% and will be further reduced in future [13] .