CHINA SPEEDS HEALTH REFORM TO CUT COSTS

China is to speed up ongoing reform of its health care system in 1994 with the aim of sharing the cost of health care provision "rationally" between the government, enterprises and individuals, according to a Labor Ministry report on the introduction of a new social service system in China.

Labor Ministry sources say that changes will include establishing a health care insurance fund to cover the costs of serious diseases and setting up medical care accounts which will pool the money from part of the raised salaries of workers. The reforms will be tested in key cities and, according to an official from the National Center for Medical Insurance, they will not lower the level of health care of urban dwellers.

Liu Xiufeng, deputy director at the Center, says that the Chinese free health service, now over 40 years old, has played an important role in protecting health, promoting economic development and maintaining social stability. However, it had the disadvantages of excessive use of expensive medicines and the "indiscriminate waste of money."