ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses China's health system before the 2009 reform guidelines and the debate that then took place among scholars concerning the direction of health reform. The chapter shows how the composition of the team responsible for the next round of reforms and comment on structural factors that challenge the new leadership as it manages the health-care reform process and conclude by the future development of health reform will depend heavily on the relative weights that given to the market mechanism and direct government intervention. The case of the US is the exceptionally strong role of certain special interest groups have resulted in laws and regulations that have contributed to high prices for drugs and physician services. Continuing urbanization and a rapidly aging population will influence the quantity and pattern of health-care demand; increasing real wage rates in China will influence the supply side and raise health-care costs.
