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China: Bioethics, Trust, and The Challenge Of The MarketChinese Health Care Policy: An Introduction to the Moral Challenges

China: Bioethics, Trust, and The Challenge Of The Market: Chinese Health Care Policy: An... Chinese Health Care Policy: An Introduction to the Moral Challenges H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. and Aaron E. Hinkley 1 Taking Finitude Seriously in a Chinese Cultural Context Across the world, health care policy is a moral and political challenge. Few want to die young or to suffer, yet not all the money in the world can deliver physical immortality or a life free of suffering. In addition, health care needs differ. As a result, unless a state coercively forbids those with the desire and means to buy better basic health care to do so, access to medicine will be unequal. No coun- try can afford to provide all with the best of care. In countries such as China, there are in addition stark regional differences in the quality and availability of health care, posing additional challenges to public policy-making. Further, in China as elsewhere, the desire to lower morbidity and mortality risks has led to ever more resources being invested in health care. When such investment is supported primarily by funds derived from taxation, an increasing burden is placed on a country’s economy. This is particularly the case as in China with its one-child policy, where the proportion of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

China: Bioethics, Trust, and The Challenge Of The MarketChinese Health Care Policy: An Introduction to the Moral Challenges

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Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
ISBN
978-1-4020-6756-3
Pages
7 –23
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4020-6757-0_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

Chinese Health Care Policy: An Introduction to the Moral Challenges H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. and Aaron E. Hinkley 1 Taking Finitude Seriously in a Chinese Cultural Context Across the world, health care policy is a moral and political challenge. Few want to die young or to suffer, yet not all the money in the world can deliver physical immortality or a life free of suffering. In addition, health care needs differ. As a result, unless a state coercively forbids those with the desire and means to buy better basic health care to do so, access to medicine will be unequal. No coun- try can afford to provide all with the best of care. In countries such as China, there are in addition stark regional differences in the quality and availability of health care, posing additional challenges to public policy-making. Further, in China as elsewhere, the desire to lower morbidity and mortality risks has led to ever more resources being invested in health care. When such investment is supported primarily by funds derived from taxation, an increasing burden is placed on a country’s economy. This is particularly the case as in China with its one-child policy, where the proportion of

Published: Jan 1, 2008

Keywords: Private Hospital; Health Care Policy; Health Care Reform; Market Reform; Health Care Institution

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