The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a document concerning the country's healthcare development program on Tuesday. It has set 2010 as the target for providing all citizens in the country with basic healthcare.

That means all residents, in either urban or rural areas, will have access to basic healthcare in less than three years. Such a picture is very encouraging, and the good intentions behind it are beyond doubt. But painting a rosy picture is one thing, and turning it into reality is another.

It is still unknown whether the NDRC has any concrete plan to attain this promising target. But the harsh reality is that too-costly medical bills push 10 million rural residents into poverty every year.

The national census of healthcare services in 2003 revealed that 44.8 percent of urban residents and 79.1 percent of rural residents were not covered by medical insurance of any kind. The percentage of people who chose to work through ailments themselves was as high as 44.9 percent, and 29.6 percent of residents who needed to be hospitalized opted against it.

So far as we know, Beijing municipal government will initiate the reform of turning small hospitals into community medical centers. The salary of medical workers in these centers will be financed entirely by the municipal government, but their income will be handed to the municipal government's coffers. This reform is supposed to reduce medical expenses for Beijing residents and provide them with easy access to healthcare.

Even if such reform could be successfully completed nationwide in a couple of years, it would only be possible for urban residents to enjoy easy and cheap healthcare. What about the 79.1 percent of the 730 million rural residents?

Some localities have started to establish co-operative medical insurance systems to provide rural villagers with basic healthcare services. Yet, it won't be easy to weave an inclusive medical insurance network for all rural residents.

So the hard nut is in the rural areas. More intensive efforts are required to promote co-operative medical insurance for rural villagers.

Such efforts need to be integrated with those in the construction of new countryside and in poverty alleviation. If efforts in these correlated areas could be put together, investment and human resources could be used in an economical manner.

If we could guarantee rural villagers access to basic healthcare services, the target of having such a service for all citizens would not be far behind.

(China Daily September 7, 2006)