Abstract:
The WHO Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage published a comprehensive report titled \"Making Fair Choices on the Path to Universal Health Coverage\" detailing strategies that countries should adopt when moving towards providing healthcare coverage to the entire population. The report provides detailed guidelines on how to expand coverage to more people, what services should be covered, and how to prioritize these healthcare resources in achieving universal healthcare coverage (UHC). The main goal of this WHO report is to ensure fair and equitable access for all population groups within a country during the implementation of UHC. In principle, the group\'s approach is sound and fair, but we argue that each country must take into account its own unique situations in designing a pathway towards UHC. China has achieved near UHC but did so by an approach that would have been deemed completely unacceptable based on this group\'s recommendations. In this article, we provide a brief review of the Chinese healthcare system and argue that the implementation of the recommendations in the report is not always feasible. We argue that there are alternate pathways towards achieving UHC and there are good reasons for China\'s departure from the approach outlined by the WHO report. Nevertheless, we acknowledge substantial inequities still exist for various segments of the population and among the diverse areas of China in accessing healthcare services and make suggestions on how to reduce such inequities within the system.
摘要:
世卫组织公平和全民健康覆盖协商小组发布了一份题为“在全民健康覆盖道路上做出公平选择”的综合报告,详细介绍了各国在向全体人口提供医疗保健覆盖时应采取的战略。该报告提供了有关如何将覆盖范围扩大到更多人的详细指南,哪些服务应该包括在内,以及如何在实现全民医疗覆盖(UHC)时优先考虑这些医疗资源。这份世卫组织报告的主要目标是确保在实施全民健康覆盖期间,一个国家内的所有人口群体都能公平和公正地获得。原则上,该小组的方法是合理和公平的,但是我们认为,每个国家在设计通往UHC的途径时都必须考虑到自己的独特情况。中国已经取得了接近UHC的成绩,但根据该组织的建议,这种做法被认为是完全不可接受的。在这篇文章中,我们对中国的医疗系统进行了简要回顾,认为实施报告中的建议并不总是可行的.我们认为,实现全民健康覆盖有其他途径,中国有充分的理由偏离世卫组织报告概述的方法。然而,我们承认,在获得医疗服务方面,中国不同人群和不同地区仍然存在着巨大的不平等,并就如何减少系统内的这种不平等提出了建议。