ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief introduction on the history of the medical and healthcare system in China. The reform of the urban medical and healthcare system has been a hot topic among the Chinese throughout the country. The reform of the country’s medical and healthcare system entails complex interdisciplinary expertise on medical reatment, pharmacy, public health and insurance. Throughout the 1980s, the central government applied the principles of ‘fixed subsidy’ and ‘decentralisation and profit-surrender’ to the institutional reform of hospitals, mainly through the Ministry of Health. Since 2000, a direction led by socialist market economy had been set for the reformation of the medical and healthcare system in urban areas. In nominal terms, public hospitals were public undertakings under the supervision and management of governmental departments for health administration. The medical insurance system played an important role in the medical and healthcare reform.
