Health policy
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Economic development and reforms have had profound impacts on China's health care sector. As a result, the health care sector in China is in transition. ⋯ It discusses resource availability in the Chinese health sector, and analyses the trend of household demand for health care goods and services. This study also examines the trade and investment situations in China's health sector and investigates the major forces that are driving the transition in health care and comments on the potential policy responses.
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In western industrialised countries, about 30% of health-care expenditure of retired people is incurred by individuals in their last year of life. The corresponding high costs of dying have led medical philosophers to ask for a rationing of health-care services according to age. By contrast, this paper pursues an individualistic approach. ⋯ Health insurance prevents demand for health-care services from decreasing when an individual's residual life expectancy shrinks. Age-related moral hazard can be limited by a coinsurance scheme with a deductible that increases with the age of the insured. Given the high costs of dying, the optimal insurance policy links the coinsurance rate to the age-specific mortality risk.