The Research On The Financing Mechanism Of New Rural Cooperative Medical System

The rural medical security system is an important part of China’s rural social security system. Cooperative medical care system is a kind of rural medical security system with Chinese characteristics, which plays an important role in guaranteeing the peasant’s right to receive essential health service. However, after experiencing the1960s’ and1970s’ golden age, the cooperative medical care system declined rapidly in the1980s. The lack of rural medical security system resulted directly in the decline of the rural residents’ health level. The ratio of "the poverty due to illness" in rural areas rises significantly, the peasant’ health is confronted with more and more severe challenges, and all of these have a serious impact on the economic development and the social stability of rural areas. Faced with the increasingly serious situation of rural health insurance, the Chinese government clearly set the goal of establishing a new rural cooperative medical system in rural areas throughout the country gradually in October,2002, and it has been carried out in some parts of the country since2003. In perspective of the effect of the operating results, the system as a whole operate smoothly, and has achieved good results, but many difficulties and problems still exist, one of which is that, a probe into the financing mechanism of the new type of rural cooperative medical care system is in urgent need.In the six decades and more since the founding of the New China, Chinese rural security system of cooperative medical has experienced two stages:the traditional rural cooperative medical care system and the new type of rural cooperative medical care system, the new type of rural cooperative medical system is actually a continuation and an innovation of the traditional cooperative medical care system. In terms of financing mechanism, the new type of rural cooperative medical system, as a kind of reform and innovation, implements the financial mechanism which is combined with individual contributions, collective support and government assistance. Compared to the traditional rural cooperative medical care system, the financing mechanism of the new type of rural cooperative medical system has introduced the government financial assistance, and conducts overall management by taking the county as the minimum unit; meanwhile, it also strengthens the supervision of the fund-raising operation.However, the operational performance of the financing mechanism of the new rural cooperative medical system is unsatisfactory. The funds of the new rural cooperative medical system from the individual, collective, and the Government are unstable, which is specifically manifested in that many peasants show low confidence in the new type of rural cooperative medical care system, the source of collective funding is hard to guarantee, and the government’s funded effort is seriously inadequate. Without a perfect financing mechanism, the fund rising of the new type of rural cooperative medical lacks the assurance in sustainability. The Anhui Province’s empirical data and Maanshan City’s empirical analysis show that obvious institutional flaws still exist in the financing mechanism of the new type of the rural cooperative medical care system.The improvement of the financing mechanism of the new type of the rural cooperative medical system can be achieved by the common effort of the demand side, the supply side and the regulatory side. For the demand side, the existing voluntary participation in the new type of cooperative medical system can be gradually changed into mandatory participation. In addition, the participation of migrant farmers still needs to be resolved. And this calls for the improvement of the financing program to eliminate the contradiction of migrant workers. For the supply side, it is necessary for the central coffer to improve the transfer payment system, and incline the system to backward areas moderately. For the regulatory side, it should improve the relevant regulatory regime.