ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the health insecurity problems faced by the rural people during the socioeconomic transition in China. It introduces the changes in basic health care system and financing, and reviews the socioeconomic impacts of the transition drawing on macro-level information. The chapter identifies health vulnerable groups through household livelihood analyses. It focuses on the use of medical services to identify residual insecurity under the existing health risk-pooling systems. Residual health insecurity can be generally defined as the situation of an individual or a group of people who are outside the coverage of health security institutions. The health insurance coverage for the rural people has been then rapidly scaled up based on the government intervention with a strong administrative power since the end of SARS pestilence. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the necessary policy interventions, looking at the Indian experiences related to these issues.
