A Research On The "Family Doctor" Scheme Of The Universal Health Care System

Since China started the pilot projects of the New Rural Co-operative Medical Care System (NRCMCS) in 2003, numerous farmers are covered by the medical security system. However, the old and children without medical insurance in cities and towns are still excluded by the system. In 2007, 79 cities in China launched the pilot reform projects of basic medical insurance for non-working urban residents. Since then, China has filled the last blank of its medical insurance, built the initial network of universal health care and improved the coverage of medical insurance. Xiamen has always been a pioneer of Fujian province and even the country in respect of the research in the expansion of the coverage of medical insurance, control of medical insurance fees and construction of community medical organizations and so it enjoys a relatively high research value. This thesis intends to make a case study of Xiamen, evaluate the current situation of the performance of its universal health care and, based on the evaluation, put forward improvement suggestions. The thesis comprises of four parts:Part 1: Introduction. This part presents the relevant problems, gives a general explanation of the research documents, and introduces the research contents and methods.Part 2: Evaluation of the current situation of the performance of universal health care. Impartiality and efficiency are two key indexes for the evaluation of a medical insurance system. This part mainly applies the two indexes for the evaluation of the performance of universal health care of Xiamen. Based on the evaluation, it reveals that universal health care is still exposed to a series of impartiality and efficiency problems although the coverage of medical insurance has been significantly improved.Part 3: The family doctor scheme based on community medical care. Foreign countries have developed mature practices in this respect and some regions in China also witness its gradual development. This part introduces the schemes of Beijing and Shanghai and points out that, with the universal health care, it will achieve a better social result to launch the scheme by leveraging on the existing community medical organizations.Part 4: The policy researches regarding the implementation of the family doctor scheme of Xiamen. Based on the platform of community medical organizations, Beijing and Shanghai has carried out the family doctor scheme, which offers some experiences for Xiamen. Considering its financial capability and the construction of the community medical service system, Xiamen has a solid foundation for the implementation of the scheme. It has become an urgent problem for Xiamen to learn from the experiences of other cities and solve the problems concerning universal health care according to its specific situation.Part 5: Conclusions.