Two Healing Giants: How China Can Benefit From Brazil's Health Reform Experience

The Brazilian Public Health System was completely changed after its reform in 1988. With the passing of a new Federal Constitution, a public health insurance was created:the Unified Health System (SUS). The basic principles of this system are universal access, equity, public financing, administrative and operational decentralization, popular participation, integrated service provisioning and participatory funding.The system provides free health assistance for all 180 million Brazilians, independently of social conditions, race, ethnicity, etc. The country's experience has been praised by some international organizations, although the system still faces serious difficulties in practice.The People's Republic of China is drafting a new health reform and until the year of 2020, the Asian Giant's government expects to completely change its current health system, offering a more fair model to its population.This paper focuses on the benefits that China could profit from by better knowing about Brazil's reform experience; which mistakes could be avoided and what successful measures could also be applied by the Asian country. The results produced are intended to help better lay out the Chinese Public Health System's Reform and to provide a deep understanding of Brazil's current health policy model. The Brazilian Public Health System was completely changed after its reform in 1988. With the passing of a new Federal Constitution, a public health insurancewas created: the Unified Health System (SUS). The basic principles of this system are universal access, equity, public financing, administrative and operational decentralization,popular participation, integrated service provisioning and participatoryfunding.The system provides free health assistance for all 180 million Brazilians, independently of social conditions, race, ethnicity, etc. The country's experience has been praised by some international organizations, although the system still faces serious difficulties in practice.The People's Republic of China is drafting a new health reform and until the year of 2020, the Asian Giant's government expects to completely change its current health system, offering a more fair model to its population.This paper focuses on the benefits that China could profit from by better knowing about Brazil's reform experience; which mistakes could be avoided and what successful measures could also be applied by the Asian country. The results produced are intended to help better lay out the Chinese Public Health System's Reform and to provide a deep understanding of Brazil's current health policy model.