One can expect health care spending in China to grow for two reasons in the coming years. First, with the economy growing, individuals and the government will have more money to spend on health care. Second, China is aging rapidly and older individuals require more health care services. Thus, it should come as no surprise that a paper by Zhai et al. 2019 find that health care spending will rise from 5.3% of the economy in 2015 to 9.1% of the economy in 2035.
Inpatient is projected to grow the fastest at a 9.2% annual growth rate; outpatient and pharmaceutical spending is expect to grow only 7.3% and 7.4% respectively.
Source:
- Zhai T, Goss J, Dmytraczenko T, Zhang Y, Li J, Chai P. China’s Health Expenditure Projections To 2035: Future Trajectory And The Estimated Impact Of Reforms. Health Affairs. 2019 May 1;38(5):835-43.
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