Study On The Public-Private Partnership In Delivery Of Health Service In China

Public-private partnership (PPP) was arisen from the theory of New Public Administration. It is a financing or management system which is widely applied in the privatization of public utilities and is funded and operated through a partnership of public sector and private sector with the focus on provision of better service through the joint efforts of public sector and private sector.In recent years, the China's health reforms have been judged as"unsuccessful", the fundamental reasons of which are the government's unaccountability and the imperfect market mechanism in China's health system. The"unsuccessful"health reforms come up with the major problems such as the inequity and inefficiency of the service and inconsistence of the system. Health service, with the increasing importance, is related to the livelihood of Chinese citizens. Our government is aware of it and refers it to the significance of social harmony. The new round of health reform has also identified the government's major role in the basic health care. However, we should be aware that the government is facing financial pressure and low level of managerial expertise. Therefore, the study on the introduction of PPP in China's health service is consistent with this opportunity.The nature of PPP is the separation of the responsibilities between government (public sector) and the market (private sector) with the emphasis on their partnership. The PPP's strength lies in its ability to integrate the public and private sectors and introduce the effective performance of private sector into the venture, so as to alleviate the pressure on the government's fiscal expenditure, effectively transfer the risks of public sector, as well as improve the efficiency of health service delivery. Moreover, the PPP is mainly introduced in the public medical institutions, the service provided by which are featured by the mixed public good, as a result, the government's pressure of fiscal expenditure would be alleviated and more budgets into the public health service and primary health care would be guaranteed. Therefore, the model can effectively address inequity and inefficiency in the health service. The full text is divided into five chapters as follows:Chapter one overviews the background and significance of PPP, briefs on the findings of domestic and foreign scholars on introduction of PPP in the health service, presents the content and methodology of the research.Chapter two briefly describes the content of the PPP, and the related theories and international experience.Chapter three reviews the health service delivery in China retrospectively, establishes the context between the major problems of health system and the roles of government and market, points out the existing problems such as inequity and inefficiency of health service and inconsistence of health system, and analyzes the causes of the problems.Chapter four demonstrates that in current national conditions the introduction of the PPP will be of necessity, points out that the PPP is a feasible model which will provide the solution, in accordance to the principle of government's major role in the basic health care, to the inequity and inefficiency of health service and the inconsistence of health system.Chapter five analyzes the feasibility to apply the PPP into China health reform, demonstrates the advantages and obstacles to introduce it, and comes up with strategies and recommendations including the adequate responsibilities of government and market in PPP projects, the principles should be abided by, the objectives and areas should be chosen, and the mechanism should be prepared.This paper is written with the aim to promote the formulation of related regulations and strategies, which would make the PPP a feasible strategy in China's new round of health reform, and ultimately achieve the objective of improving the equity and efficiency of health service.