January 14th, a seminar on “Breaking the Administrative Monopoly in the Medical Resource Allocation” was held at Unirule Office in Beijing. Present at the meeting include Professor SHENG Hong, Director of Unirule; Ms. QIAN Pu, CCPPP of Unirule; Professor MAO Shoulong from Renmin University; Professor ZHU Junsheng from Capital University of Economics and Business; Mr. WAN Jingbo from Spring Rain Software CO.,LTD； Ms. SUN Xiuyan from China Behaviour-law Association(CBLS), and over 30 guests from the media.  

Professor SHENG Hong and Ms. QIAN Pu introduced the research briefly. Later on, Professor MAO Shoulong gave a keynote speech on “Extensive Order, Structure of Rights, and the Governance Reform in the Healthcare Area.” Professor ZHU Junsheng gave a keynote speech on “From Monopoly to Competition: The Reform Path for Healthcare.”

Professor SHENG Hong thought healthcare was first and foremost an area of private goods which should be under the institution of market economy for the resource allocation. There would be efficiency loss if administrations stepped in and intervene. Besides, under price regulation, there were also rent dissipation and rent-keeping behaviours as a result in the healthcare area.

Ms. QIAN Pu introduced that there were measures echoing the planned economy or administrative interventions in the allocation of healthcare resources, such as the entry barriers for medical institutions, price regulations, and regulations interfering the practice of doctors, which constituted huge loss of efficiency. On the other hand, the spatial allocation of resources did not fully reflect the unfairness of resource allocation, but the concentration of quality resources did so to an increasing extent.

Professor MAO Shoulong thought the unfairness of resource allocation was a result of the order in the healthcare area. Originally, medical services were provided in communities. However, in an extended society, the trait of interaction was enhanced, whereas China was an incomplete healthcare market. In the meanwhile, Professor MAO thought the characteristics of scientific R&D and that of medical services should be distinguished. At last, he pointed out that the conundrum of unfair medical resource allocation could be solved by a reform of the governance path, where the allocation should be built upon rights and obligations.

Professor ZHU Junsheng thought the main problem of the existing healthcare system was monopoly which led to insufficient supply. He thought the reform direction should be more competition, and to guarantee the openness of services and the basic guarantee of provision. What’s more, the price regulation should be relaxed to let the payment standard of the social insurance function.  

Unirule Institute of Economics completed A Research on the Efficiency and Fairness of Resources Allocation by Governmental Administrations in China over the last two years. In this report, three areas are examined, namely education, land and healthcare, for the negative effect of government administrations. This event focused on the healthcare area.