Over the past 2 decades, China has made remarkable progress in health-care service coverage, especially in the areas of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, infectious diseases, and service capacity and access. In these areas, coverage is comparable to those in high-income countries. Inequalities of service coverage in these areas have been reduced. However, there remain large gaps in the service coverage of chronic diseases. There has been little progress in controlling risk factors of chronic diseases in the past 10 years. Service coverage for most chronic conditions is lower than in high-income countries. Moreover, China has disproportionately high incidences of catastrophic health expenditure compared with countries with similar economic development. This paper comprehensively evaluates China's progress towards universal health coverage by identifying the achievements and gaps in service coverage and financial risk protection that are crucial to achieve universal health coverage goals by 2030.

This report analyses the underlying causes of China's achievements and gaps in universal health coverage over the past 2 decades and proposes policy recommendations for advancing universal health coverage by 2030. Although strong political commitment and targeted financial investment have produced positive outcomes in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and infectious diseases, a fragmented and hospital-centric delivery system, rising health-care costs, shallow benefit coverage of health insurance schemes, and little integration of health in all policies have restricted China's ability to effectively prevent and control chronic disease and provide adequate financial risk protection, especially for lower-income households. Here, we used a health system conceptual framework and we propose a set of feasible policy recommendations that draw from international experiences and first-hand knowledge of China's unique institutional landscape. Our six recommendations are: instituting a primary care-focused integrated delivery system that restructures provider incentives and accountability mechanisms to prioritise prevention; leveraging digital tools to support health behaviour change; modernising information campaigns; improving financial protection through insurance reforms; promoting a health in all policy; and developing a domestic monitoring framework with refined tracer indicators that reflects China's disease burden.

Background: China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of cigarettes. Since 2010, the Chinese government has implemented many policies to combat the tobacco epidemic, yet little is known about their overall impacts. This study aims to investigate the trends in smoking prevalence and intensity between 2010 and 2018. Methods: We use five waves of data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationally representative survey, to examine the trends in smoking prevalence and intensity. We use the chi-square test and t-test to examine differences across waves. Binary logistic regressions and linear regressions are applied to examine the association between smoking behaviors and risk factors. Results: The current smoking prevalence dropped from 30.30% in 2010 (90% CI 29.47–31.31) to 28.69% (90% CI 27.69–29.69) in 2018. As for smoking intensity, the average daily cigarettes consumption decreased steadily from 16.96 cigarettes (90% CI 16.55–17.36) in 2010 to 15.12 cigarettes (90% CI 15.07–15.94) in 2018. Smoking risk factors for men included marriage status, education level, employment status, alcohol consumption, and physical activities. The smoking risk was higher for women with a lower education level, lower household income, unemployment status, and alcohol consumption behavior. Conclusions: Our study shows declined trends in both smoking prevalence and intensity between 2010 and 2018, suggesting some positive progress in tobacco control in China. Nonetheless, to achieve the goal of reducing smoking prevalence among people aged 15 and above to less than 20% by 2030, the Chinese government needs to take stronger anti-tobacco measures.

Background: The public’s perception of the health system provides valuable insights on health system performance and future directions of improvement. While China’s health care reform was a response to people’s discontent in the health care system due to the lack of accessibility and affordability, little is known on changes in public perception of China’s health system. This paper examines trends in public perception of the health system between 2006 and 2019 and assesses determinants of public perception in China’s health system. Methods: Seven waves of the China Social Survey, a nationally representative survey, were used to examine trends in public satisfaction with health care and perceived fairness in health care. Chi-square tests were used to examine differences across waves. Logistic regression models were used to explore determinants of public perception, including variables on sociodemographic characteristics, health system characteristics, and patient experience. Results: Satisfaction with health care increased from 57.76% to 77.26% between 2006 and 2019. Perceived fairness in health care increased from 49.79% to 72.03% during the same period. Both indicators showed that the major improvement occurred before 2013. Sociodemographic characteristics are weakly associated with public perception. Financial protection and perceived medical safety are strongly associated with public perception, while accessibility is weakly associated with public perception. Patient experience such as perceived affordability and quality in the last medical visit are strongly associated with public perception of the health care system, while the accessibility of the last medical visit shows no impacts. Conclusion: Public satisfaction on health care and perceived fairness in health care in China improved over 2006–2019. The main improvement occurred in accordance with huge financial investments in public health insurance before 2013. Financial protection and perceived quality play significant roles in determining public perception, whereas accessibility and sociodemographic characteristics have limited influence on people’s perception of China’s health system. To achieve higher satisfaction and a higher sense of fairness in health care, China’s health system needs to continue its reforms on hospital incentives and integrated delivery system to control health expenditure and improve health care quality.