Premier Li Keqiang delivered the Report on the Work of the Government (hereinafter referred to as the Report) at the 13th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on March 5, which attracted extensive attention. The Report mainly gave an overview of the achievements made by the Chinese government in the past 5 years and made proposals for the work of the Chinese government in 2018. The work of the government often plays a key guiding role for every walk of life, therefore, we medicinal workers mainly focus on the highlights on pharmaceuticals in the Report.

I. Three highlights in the review of the work over the past five years
1. Medical insurance coverage greatly increased, drug market development promoted by the increased purchasing power of the elderly
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Social old-age pension schemes now cover more than 900 million people, and the basic medical insurance plans cover 1.35 billion people, forming the largest social security net in the world. On average, life expectancy has reached 76.7 years. |
(Source: www.gov.cn)
According to the Report, in China, "social old-age pension schemes now cover more than 900 million people, and the basic medical insurance plans cover 1.35 billion people, forming the largest social security net in the world."
Comment: On average, life expectancy has reached 76.7 years in China, with many elderly people; the reasonable medical insurance mechanism has greatly improved the purchasing power of the elderly, which does not only improve their life quality, but also improve their pursuit for health and disease drugs, promoting the development of the drug market in China from the side.
2. Drug market development boosted by the pharmaceutical mechanism reform
According to the Report, "We have carried out coordinated medical service, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical reforms. We have introduced a comprehensive reform in all public hospitals, rescinded the policy, long in effect, of allowing hospitals to profit from higher priced medicine, and made breakthroughs in the reform of approval systems for medicine and medical devices."
Comment: Achievements in this regard are obvious to all. China has successively introduced policies and measures like "two-invoice system" and "drug consistency evaluation" for the past few years, which have not only regulated the pharmaceutical product market of China from production to sales, etc., but also guaranteed the benign development of the drug market of China.
3: Medical insurance and serious disease insurance system gradually formed, to promote drug market development
According to the Report, "Government subsidies for basic medical insurance schemes for rural and non-working urban residents have been increased from RMB 240 to 450 per person; the serious disease insurance system is basically in place, and has already benefited more than 17 million people; the costs of hospitalization can now be settled where incurred; and the development of tiered medical diagnosis and treatment and healthcare consortiums has picked up pace."
Comment: China continued to increase financial investment in the basic medical insurance and serious disease insurance over the past five years, which increased the purchasing power of patients to some extent, especially in terms of serious disease treatment, they could select better drugs.









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