Examine The Ethics Of Health System Reform In Contemporary China

The reform of the Chinese public health system started 20 years ago in 1985. It hasundergone three stages with great achievements, manifested by the increase of health resourcesand the vitality of medical agencies, improvement of biomedicine and variety of health servicemodes. A series of problems, however, are present, including insufficient funds on medicinefrom the government, imbalance in the distribution of health resources, rise of medication prices,disorder in medical charges, high fee for medical treatment, deterioration of the relationshipbetween doctors and patient, lack of medical ethic, etc. From the point of view of ethic, we canfind that this status quo is caused by the emphasis on efficiency and the negligence of fairnessinfluenced by utilitarianism. The reasons include the lack of responsibility of the part of thegovernment, which pays attention to immediate benefit and neglects ethic codes; the pursuit ofprofit and negligence of construction of professional ethic codes on the part of the medicalagencies; mammonism on the part of the medical workers. It follows that it is imperative toconsider the particularity of the medical profession, follow the ethic regulation in deontology,carry out reform under the guidance of the correct ethic thoughts and observe the basic ethicstandards including fairness, public interest, profit and humanism, if medical reform is to furtherdevelop. The government should shoulder the responsibility of maintaining fairness in the society,increase the funds allocated to the medical cause, recognize the social role of the medicalprofession as an enterprise for public interest, distinguish between the basic medical services andnon-basic medical services and increase the funds on basic medical services. The governmentshould also change its role from sponsoring public health to administering public health, and in itsadministration of public health, it should stick to the principles of prevention first and preventionand treatment in combination and promote the biology-psychology-sociomedicine transformation.It is also necessary to strengthen the construction of community health services and theconstruction of medical ethic of the medical agencies and medical workers.