Regulating private medical institutions: a case study of China.

Publisher: Cambridge University Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101247224 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1744-134X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 17441331 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Health Econ Policy Law Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, c2006-

Government Regulation* ; Privatization*; Delivery of Health Care/*standards ; Health Facilities, Proprietary/*legislation & jurisprudence ; Human Rights/*legislation & jurisprudence ; Private Sector/*standards; China ; Right to Health ; Social Responsibility

The expansion of privatisation in health care has been discussed extensively in most European countries and remains a hot topic nowadays. In China, privatisation results in considerable changes in its health care system, especially accelerating the ever-growing private medical institutions (PMIs). The rapid growth of PMIs raises the question of regulation for the Chinese government. Given the fact that few studies are available on the regulation of PMIs in China, I attempted to fill that gap by discussing the development of PMIs with a special focus on legal-regulatory strategies. After assessing current legal-regulatory strategies concerning PMIs, the paper identifies three major concerns regarding effective legal rules (i.e. weak coherence, inconsistency and legislative vacancy) and three difficult issues regarding government capacity (i.e. the negative effects of decentralised political structure, the low professionalism of bureaucrats and lack of reliability) that impede the well-functioning of regulatory agencies in China. As a plausible response, the paper recommends that the newly drafted basic health law should assign a separate chapter to regulate PMIs and also an independent regulatory body should be established to manage the issues of PMIs in China. Detailed recommendations are the practical implications of ICESCR General Comment No. 14.

Keywords: China; International human rights law; private medical institutions; privatisation; regulation

Date Created: 20190824 Date Completed: 20210720 Latest Revision: 20210720

20221213

10.1017/S1744133119000227

31441396