Medical expenditure has become a heavy burden on the public sector and the family system in many countries. Expanding the coverage and reimbursement of medical insurance has become a common way to reduce the burden. This book will elaborate on how medical insurance may increase the burden instead.
It explains why the existing medical insurance system results in increased medical costs, where higher costs may offset the benefits of certainty brought by medical insurance, forming the ""paradox of medical care insurance"". This assumption is verified by empirical evidence in China, through a new method developed to find out the actual medical costs, using two parameters: ratio of self-payment of medical insurance and the level of monopoly in the supply of medical services. The book also describes the history, the current situation, and the reform of the health care system in China.
Hong Sheng, Director of the Unirule Institute of Economics (2003–2019), a retired professor at the Economic Research Institute of Shandong University, was born in 1954, graduated from People's University of China in 1983, and received Master's Degree and Doctor's Degree in Economics from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1986 and in 1990 respectively. He was a visiting scholar of the University of Chicago from 1993 to 1994.
Since 1990s, Sheng Hong has been focusing on institutional economics, international political economy, and comparing and combining traditional Chinese culture and Western economic theories. He has published dozens of papers and books in China's main academic journal and press of economics. His representative books are: Division of Labor and Transactions (1992), Transitional Economics of China (1994, as chief editor), Creating Peace Forever (1996), Seeking for a Stable Way for the Reform (2002), Governing a Large Country as Cooking Small Fishes: An Institutional Economics on Governments (2003), The Great Wall and the Coase Theorem (2010), The Natural Law is the Gentlemen's Mission (2013), An Explanation on Confucianism by Economics (2015), and Research on Efficiency and Fairness of Resources Allocation by China's Governmental Administration (2019).
Lin Zhang is Researcher of Unirule Institute of Economics, Academic Assistant of Professor Mao Yushi, Columnist. He was born in 1988, conferred Master's degree in Economics from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2011. He organized and took part in many projects related to market economy promotion and private economy protection; published several in-depth reports on public policy analysis. He has written both Chinese and English reviews in mainland China and Hong Kong, focusing on China's and the world's macroeconomic operation and China's public policies. He has also attended several training sessions from The Ronald Coase Institute, Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung and CIPE.
Pu Qian, female, born in 1974, graduated from the Department of Urban and Rural Construction Economics, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She holds a Master's degree in Economics. She is now the Deputy Director of the Public Utilities Center of Unirule Institute of Economics. Her research fields include urban economy, investment and financing mode of municipal public facilities, reform of government management system and so on. She has taken part in many public policy research projects in Unirule Institute of Economics, including: ""The Nature, Performance and Reform of State-owned Enterprises"" (2010–2011), ""Administrative Monopoly in China, Cause, Behaviors, and Termination"" (2012–2013), ""Opening up China's Markets of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products, Theoretical Research and Reform Solutions"" (2013–2014), and ""Research on Efficiency and Fairness of Resources Allocation by China's Governmental Administration "" (2019).
