The rapidly expanding health care systems in China and the United States present both challenges and opportunities for reform.
China’s growth will lead to an unprecedented expansion of health care and a greater demand for access, said Bill Frist, former Republican Senate majority leader, in an address Thursday to a crowded audience at the Fuqua School of Business. Frist and other health experts presented at the conference on international health care finance and reform, which focused on global health issues. The event was presented by Fuqua and the Duke Global Health Institute.
“There is going to be explosive growth in the health care sector in China, and there are going be great opportunities for the United States to participate in that growth,” Frist said in an interview after his address.
In his introductory remarks, President Richard Brodhead related the subject of the conference to Duke’s mission.
“The problems of the world are not confined to national boundaries,” Brodhead said. “We want our students to see problems in a comparative dimension.”
Keynote speaker Alice Rivlin, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, discussed the relation between health care and payment reform in the U.S. and China, focusing on the opportunities that emerge from the attempt to put the federal budget back on a sustainable track.
“We’re currently spending 17 percent of our [gross domestic product] on health care, and that percent is rising,” Rivlin said. “If we don’t improve health care delivery and slow the increase of cost, where does this [spending] end?”
Rivlin also noted the current issues affecting Medicare—the federal system of health insurance for people ages 65 and older and people with disabilities—because people are living longer, and baby boomers are starting to reach retirement age. Resolving the present state of health care is becoming even more pressing given the looming national debt problem, Rivlin added.
Frist delivered a second speech comparing and contrasting the structure of health care in the U.S. and China. He reflected on both governmental and cultural differences between the two countries.
“China today provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for entities to participate and shape explosive growth in health service delivery to hundreds of millions of people,” Frist said.
Although the specifics may vary, the underlying issues of health care in the U.S. and China are similar, Frist said. There is, for example, a problem of medical care access in both countries, where two-thirds of the population live in rural areas far from hospitals, he said. Although the Chinese government has taken measures to increase funding for medical centers in rural areas, more involvement is needed. Even now, the Chinese government covers approximately 45 percent of health care expenditures, while 55 percent comes straight from patients’ pockets.
“One issue to consider is the disparity between rural and urban areas in terms of health care resources,” Frist said. “There is a lack of advanced medical equipment and technology in many health care centers that needs to be resolved.”
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