Perspectives on the progress of China’s 2009 – 2012 health system reform

In July this year, China’s Ministry of Health (MoH) commissioned an independent external mid-term review of progress in its current health system reform (HSR), itself designed after unprecedented input from six external agencies and the general public (1,2). In its draft report, as yet unreleased, the six-member team of eminent reviewers praises the leadership and financial commitment demonstrated by China’s government in pursuing HSR, but among other things makes strong calls for harmonisation of urban and rural insurance schemes, further improvements to payment mechanisms and oversight of the quality of care, quantitative evaluations of key systems outputs and health outcomes and scientific evaluation of the benefit and cost-effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine.