| As a global problem, reforms on health care systems always put governments into a dilemma. On one hand, any government, out of the concern for the health condition of its people in general, puts the equality and accessibility of the health care service as the priority, as well as taking cost-effectiveness and safety of delivery into consideration. Its goal is to satisfy people and build the country into a harmonious one. On the other, the government has to control the expenditure on health at an acceptable level so as to maintain the economic and social sustainability. Owing to the asymmetry of medical information, and the complexity of interests from different stakeholders involved, it is extremely difficult for any government to keep the balance between the equality and efficiency of health services, reaching a point between the social targets at this end and economic targets at the other. Reform on health system has become a continuing disputed issue for any particular government.Meanwhile it is a big issue for the people, because people are extremely concerned about their own health conditions and any consequence of health problems. Governments are wrestling with the challenges arising from the intersection of demographic and socio-economic changes and technological development, making changes to the design and delivery of health policy. This inevitably results in profound influences to people's life and health conditions. Confronted with the same challenge, each government may work out its unique way to tackle the problem, from different political, economic, sociological and cultural perspectives. Rarely would two governments have the same health policy or follow the same reforming pathway.At present, China is planning and re-designing a transformative reform on the health care system. Drastic changes are expected. In April, the State Council issued two documentations, namely Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening the Health Care System Reform, and Implementation Plan for the Recent Priorities of the Health Care System Reform (2009-2011), illustrating the firmness of central government's decision in reform on the health care system. In the guideline, the Opinion pointed out:"It should be guided by the important thoughts of Deng Xiaoping theory and Three Represents; it should implement in depth the Scientific Outlook on Development; it should proceed from China's national conditions, and draw on the useful international experience; it should aim at achieving the goal of ensuring basic health care services for everyone, and emphatically address the problems concerning the most direct and real interests of the people or the ones that the people are most concerned about."Both the Opinion and the Plan emphasized the importance to establish the public health system, health care service system, medical security system, and a secured pharmaceutical supply system, to form a "four in one" basic health care system in China.Under this circumstance, the National Health Services (NHS) in the England, featuring at the wide coverage of population and controlled expenditure on health, caught interests from both the government leaders and academic professionals in China. This study, trying to capture the whole picture of the NHS, is aimed to cast a fresh insight of the UK system. We believe that by understanding the international experience, we would find more to draw on, which would be valuable and significant.The study starts with the basic information and development of the NHS, followed by an evolving illustration of the four supporting systems: primary health care, health care delivery, financing and payment, and pharmaceutical regulations of the NHS. We tried to summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the UK health care system, and the traits of its recent reforms. Firmly based on the circumstances and conditions in China, we raise our suggestions boldly in the last part of establishing the Basic Health Care System in China.
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