Examination and Improvement of China's Medical Assistance System —Based on 964 Local Legislative Texts

Abstract

Since medical assistance is a livelihood security system for the poor to obtain basic medical services, the construction and improvement of medical assistance system is an important component of social security and livelihood security of a country or region. This paper has selected 41 provinces and cities to investigate the effective local legislation of medical assistance since the current legal construction of medical assistance in China is basically led by local legislation. The total number of valid samples is 964 local legislative texts. This paper examines the local legislative model of medical assistance in China, local legislation hierarchy and legislative subjects, medical assistance handling service mechanism, Medical assistance fund raising, medical assistance objects and identification, methods of medical assistance, standards of medical assistance, and other aspects through samples analysis. It can be seen that under the administrative pattern of "multi-ministry co-governance", the local legislation of medical assistance is fragmented and has a low legislative level. At the same time, there are problems in various regions, for example extensive handling service mechanism, unclear financing responsibility, missing scope of aid objects, single aid method and great difference in aid standards. Then it summarizes the problems existing in local legislation and analyzes the hidden legal principles, while the unified medical assistance regulations should be formulated under the centralized and unified management system of the National Healthcare Security Administration, so as to improve the handling service mechanism, clarify the financing responsibility, undertake comprehensive standards to identify the recipients of assistance, and determine the scientific methods and standards of assistance.