Perspectives on China’s Changing COVID Landscape

In December 2022, China announced several changes to their COVID-19 policies. Dr. Winnie Yip, Professor of Global Health Policy and Economics, spoke with several major U.S.-based media outlets to discuss indications of the Chinese government’s changing direction in regard to its longstanding “Zero-COVID” approach, as well as critical reopening strategies the government could employ in order to safely and effectively do so. Dr. Yip, who is also Faculty Director of…

New Publication: Trends and Projections of Universal Health Coverage Indicators in China, 1993–2030: An Analysis of Data from Four Nationwide Household Surveys

Summary Background Universal health coverage (UHC) is a core element of Sustainable Development Goals and has become a global healthcare priority. China has been committing to provide all citizens with affordable and equitable basic healthcare over past decades. However, progress towards UHC in China has not been comprehensively assessed. This study aims to comprehensively evaluate the progress towards UHC in China by examining trends in service coverage and financial protection from 1993…

New Publication: Provincial Variations in Catastrophic Health Expenditure and Medical Impoverishment in China: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

Summary Background Financial protection, as a key dimension of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), has been under increasing attention in recent years. A series of studies have examined the nationwide extent of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and medical impoverishment (MI) in China. However, disparities in financial protection at the province level have rarely been studied. The aim of this study was to investigate provincial variations in financial protection as well as…

New Publication: Dynamic Trend of China’s Population Ageing and New Characteristics of the Elderly [中国人口老龄化新趋势及老年人口新特征]

Abstract Based on the 7th National Population Census conducted in 2020 and previous censuses, this study analyzes the current situation and the dynamic trend of China’s population ageing. This study first describes the health status, sources of livelihood, living arrangement, and marital status of the older population in general, and summarizes the characteristics of China’s population ageing: The speed and depth of China’s ageing process have been further strengthened, and…

Commentary: Managing the health of online care in China

The adoption of digital technologies in health care has vastly accelerated over the past two years as the COVID-19 pandemic saw health care providers switch to virtual care options like telehealth. In the United States, in-person visits to Department of Veteran Affairs facilities declined by 55 per cent from March to May 2020, while telephone and video visits increased rapidly. A similar expansion of telemedicine use was observed in Europe. In China, the use…

New Publication: Have lower-income groups benefited more from increased government health insurance subsidies? Benefit incidence analysis in Ningxia, China

Abstract China’s government subsidies on the demand side – such as subsidizing medical insurance premiums – have accelerated progress towards universal health coverage. We examined whether the increased government subsidies had benefited the population, especially the poor. We conducted two rounds of household surveys and collected the annual claims reports of a rural medical insurance scheme in Ningxia (a relatively underdeveloped region in Western China). We used benefit incidence analysis…

Publication: Consumer choice and public-private providers: The role of perceived prices

We investigate the role of perceived price and quality on consumer choice for four different health conditions across public and private providers using a nationally representative survey in Malaysia. We estimate a mixed logit model and show that consumers value different dimensions of quality depending on the health condition. Furthermore, increasing perceived prices for private providers reduces demand for minor, more frequent health conditions such as flu, fever, or cough,…

Meaningful Dying and End of Life Care in China

Event Summary The medicalization of ageing has increased reliance on the use of medical treatments to prolong life. However, death represents an inevitable reality, raising important questions about what it means to provide people with a meaningful, quality death. On June 2, 2022, the Harvard China Health Partnership invited Dr. Jun JING, Professor of Social Anthropology at Tsinghua University, to explore this question in the Chinese context at an online…

Publication: Can a global budget improve health care efficiency? Experimental evidence from China

The Analysis of Provider Payment Reforms on Advancing China’s Health (APPROACH) project shifted the payment method of China’s rural health insurance scheme for county hospitals from fee-for-service to a novel global budget. APPROACH conducted a large-scale RCT of the global budget in 56 counties (22 million enrollees) of Guizhou province from 2016–2017. Applying randomization inference to claims data, we find a significant shift of inpatient utilization and expenditure from out-of-county…

HCHP Newsletter – China Health Connection: Issue 3

The third issue of the Harvard China Health Partnership’s newsletter China Health Connection has been released. This newsletter brings readers updates on the progress we are making across our research portfolio and the positive impact HCHP’s work is having on strengthening China’s health system. In this issue, Faculty Director Winnie Yip highlights recent research contributions spanning health systems, internet health, ageing, and health philanthropy; our third annual Executive Education Program for policymakers at…