ABSTRACT
Five years have elapsed since the Chinese government announced its ambitious health care reform programme in 2009. The fact that both the United States and China unfolded their gigantic national health care reforms almost simultaneously is reflective of the daunting health policy challenges that most national governments are grappling with. Skyrocketing costs and continuous demand for quality improvement best describe the thorny problems testing the wisdom of policy-makers. While Obamacare has barely survived the obstruction from Congress and remains controversial, its Chinese counterpart has concluded its first phase at a fairly smooth pace. Having had three trillion RMB invested into it within five years,1 this landmark reform stands out as one of the biggest health policy interventions in modern history in terms of both scale and scope. Is this reform a success? One can hardly reach a definitive conclusion given the multidimensionality of the reform programme and the much longer time span needed to assess its effects. But what is certain is that the ongoing reform has been transforming a system that affects the health of 1.3 billion people in a dramatic manner. An interim evaluation will be helpful at this critical stage when the Chinese government is searching for solid evidence to improve the current reform agenda.
