Medical payment system to be reformed

Nineteen categories of industrial products will no longer be required to have a manufacturing license, according to a document released by the State Council, China’s Cabinet. In addition, authorization of eight types of industrial products will be delegated to provincial-level governments. The new rule reduces the number of types of industrial products requiring manufacturing licenses to 38, with half of them to be managed by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the other half by provincial governments. The general office under the State Council issued a timetable for streamlining and delegating administrative powers for this year. The government’s key targets in streamlining administration within the year include a nationwide unified catalog for charging, as well as reducing burdensome certification for residents. Targets for this year were drawn up during a video and telephone conference, presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on June 13. The government will encourage the participation of social capital in the public service. A comprehensive network for information disclosure across departments under the State Council will be established in 2017. Medical insurance funds will be better managed and a diversified medical payment system based on different types of diseases will be set up, according to the State Council’s latest document on medical payment reform. Methods of medical payment may vary depending on the type of disease, whether the patients are hospitalized and the level of hospitals involved. The reform, aiming to diversify medical payment channels and ensure the long-term sustainability of the payment system, is to be applied across the country by 2020 and regulation of medical insurance funds will become stricter, according to the document. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance have issued a joint new guideline that requires provision of free textbooks for primary and middle school students in compulsory education. This means the previous piloting free textbook policy now covers the whole country. Local finance authorities are responsible for shouldering the costs of textbooks and purchasing of these must