The World Trade Organization and China’s Health Insurance Sector

It has been widely recognized that both opportunities and threats exist for developing countries in the globalization of health goods and health services in the WTO framework, yet the positives of opening up the insurance sector as a whole are likely to outweigh the negatives. This is particularly true for health insurance reform in China, for several reasons: (i) The socioeconomic reform has given rise to an increase in income and the need for an improved safety net, such as protection for health, unemployment, unexpected disasters, pensions and so on. The need for health insurance has never previously been felt so acutely across all segments of Chinese population; (ii) Improved health insurance programmes are beneficial to all stakeholders, including the government, multinationals, domestic actors and, most important of all, the Chinese people themselves; (iii) Health insurance has a social purpose that is deeply rooted in the Chinese cultural psyche and socialist ideology, and most important of all, it is vitally linked to China’s social stability; and (iv) Health insurance is deemed to be an important policy objective and is likely to affect the Chinese government’s political capital.