China's Urban Health Care Reform: From State Protection to Individual Responsibility

(Paperback)

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One way to describe the importance of social policy is to say it's about "what is and what might be." This ethos is the driving force behind Chack-Kie Wong, Vai Io Lo, and Kwong-leung Tang's China's Urban Health Care Reform. Based on a study of a mid-level city in China, these three scholars provide analysis and offer theory-based recommendations on health care development. Using a comparative policy framework, supported by a legal expert's knowledge of regulatory specifications, China's Urban Health Care Reform argues that a strategy with priority in economic growth, as in the case of China, does not bring forth cost efficiency and equity in health care for the whole nation. Ultimately, Wong, Lo, and Tang strive to offer direction for health care reform that will lead to better health care in China's cities. As a result, this is a work of great significance to anyone involved in public health, social work, public policy, medicine, or law.

Reviews

Integrating theoretical, policy, and quantitative and qualitative perspectives, this rich and detailed study should be instrumental in bringing an important and relatively neglected topic to a wider audience. -- Martin Powell, University of Bath
Chack-kie Wong, Vai Io Lo, and Kwong-leung Tang, all highly regarded scholars of social policy in East Asia, especially China, have written the first English language assessment of urban health care reform in the world's most populous nation. The authors provide a window onto economic reform, rapid economic development, the Chinese state, policy reform, health care delivery and financing, and well-being and social conditions of China's urban population. This illuminating book is essential reading for anyone interested in economic and social development in China today. -- Michael Sherraden, director, Center for Social Development, Washington University in St. Louis

Author Bio

Chack-kie Wong is professor of social work at Chinese University of Hong Kong and, currently, a visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley. Vai Io Lo is associate professor in the Graduate School on International Management at International University of Japan. Kwong-leung Tang is professor of social work at Chinese University of Hong Kong.