The Strategy of Health-Sector Planning in The People's Rebublic of China

Abstract

A compelling aspect of the proclaimed development strategy of the People's Republic of China is the importance attached to an improvement in the health status of the Chinese people. Perhaps nowhere else in the less developed world has the role of health as both a means and an end of economic development been trumpeted so loudly and consistently. The Chinese emphasis on health is of more than academic importance in the light of the failure of health programs throughout the underdeveloped world to deliver effectively health services to a large proportion of the population or to eradicate many infectious and parasitic diseases for which well-developed preventive measures exist. In this paper we shall examine the Chinese strategy for the delivery of preventive and curative health services and evaluate its potential importance for other less developed countries (LDCs).