Development of Commercial Health Insurance in China: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Facing difficulties like increasing health burden and health inequity, China government started to promote commercial health insurance (CHI) in recent decades. Several policies and announcement have been issued to build up a favorable environment for development of commercial health insurance. Meanwhile, scholar tried to investigate the related issues in purpose to further improve the situation in China. Therefore, we performed this systematic review in order depict a comprehensive picture on the current evidence-based researches of CHI in China. We searched PubMed, ScienceDirect, and CNKI, supplemented with hand search in reference lists, for eligible studies published from 1990 January to 2018 April. Also, hand search was conducted to select suitable articles from international organization and reference list of eligible articles. Two independent reviewers extracted the data from eligible articles and input into a standardized form. Based on the inclusion criteria, 35 articles were included in this systematic review. Most of the studies were quantitative researches with topics such as the development level of commercial health insurance in China, the demand and supply issues related, and the relationship and influence of social health insurance, as well as the moral issues evolved from commercial health insurance system. In summary, CHI in China is still at the early development stage. Among those few evidence-based articles, the findings suggested several policy implication and different market strategy. With the initiation of new health reforms and implementation of taxes policy, more empirical researches should be conducted on issues relating to the practical operation of CHI.

Catastrophic health expenditures of households living with pediatric leukemia in China

“…21 One explanation is the low payout and compensation rate for MIUR and NCMS, 20,21,31 and CMI is a relatively new medical coverage. 38 However, for households that have both the basic medical insurance (either MIUR or NCMS) and CMI, they are less likely to experience CHE. This could be attributed to these households obtaining a greater amount of compensation for having both medical coverages.…”

Patient-provider relationships in China: A qualitative study on the perspectives of healthcare students and junior professionals

“…Though the Commission on Health and Family Planning in China wants to realign incentives [ 26 ], China has a mostly fee-for-service single-payer system with strict price control policies [ 16 ]. The development of private healthcare and commercial insurances may help supplement the income of healthcare providers [ 27 , 28 ]. Non-government non-profit healthcare could play a role in changing the pattern and revenue model of quality healthcare services [ 29 ].…”

Influence of patient and hospital characteristics on inpatient satisfaction in China's tertiary hospitals: A cross‐sectional study

“…While government officials and urban employees enjoy a comprehensive coverage from GIS and UEBMI, the rest of the population are mostly covered by public insurances that are shallow in both reimbursement rate and service list . Although commercial insurances are also available, only a small share of people enrols in these plans due to reasons such as high premium, complex design and misperception . Besides promoting commercial insurances, it is equally, if not more, important to expand the coverage of public insurances to better alleviate financial burdens of patients during negative health shocks.…”