Abstract
Ancient China emphasized disease prevention. As a Chinese saying goes, ‘it is more important to prevent the disease than to cure it’. Traditional Chinese medicine posits that diseases can be understood, thus, prevented. In today’s China, the state of people’s health seems worse than in the past. Thus the Chinese government undertook the creation of a new health system. Alas, we believe the results are not very satisfactory. The government seems to have overlooked rational allocation between resources for treatment and prevention. Public investment has been gradually limited to the domain of treatment. We respond to this trend, highlighting the importance of prevention and call for government and policymakers to adjust health policy and work out a solution suitable for improving the health of China’s people.
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The authors question the wisdom of a well-intentioned health system reform in China because it neglects resources for prevention. They call for China's policymakers to adjust policy to better protect and improve the health of the population.
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Yang, L., Zhang, X., Tan, T. et al. Commentary: Viewpoint: Prevention is missing: Is China’s health reform reform for health?. J Public Health Pol 36, 73–80 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2014.39
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2014.39