Impact of China's National Centralized Drug Procurement Policy on pharmaceutical enterprises' financial performance: a quasi-natural experimental study.

Introduction: In China, the interest relationship between pharmaceutical enterprises and medical institutions has harmed the healthy development of pharmaceutical enterprises. In November 2018, the National Centralized Drug Procurement (NCDP) policy was published. The NCDP policy severs the interest relationship and significantly impacts on pharmaceutical enterprises's financial performance. Methods: Using the implementation of China's National Centralized Drug Procurement (NCDP) policy as a quasi-natural experiment, this study evaluated the impact of participation in the NCDP policy on pharmaceutical enterprises' financial performance. We developed a difference-in-difference model to estimate the change in financial performance after NCDP implementation, based on financial data on Chinese listed pharmaceutical enterprises. Results: We found that the bid-winning enterprises' financial performance significantly improved after participating in NCDP. This may be related to lower costs, market share expansion, and increased research and development investment by the bid-winning enterprises. Discussion: To further promote the high-quality development of pharmaceutical enterprises in China, the government should expand the variety of drugs on the NCDP list (NCDP drugs), while improving the drug patent protection system and the policies to support the bid-winning enterprises.

Effects of basic medical insurance integration on subjective wellbeing of residents in China: empirical evidence from a quasi-experiment.

Introduction: Enhancing the wellbeing of residents through universal health coverage (UHC) is a long-term policy goal for China. In 2016, China integrated the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) and the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) into the Urban and Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URRBMI) to address the problem of fragmentation. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the integration of basic medical insurance had an impact on the subjective wellbeing of Chinese residents. Methods: Using the China Household Finance Survey data of 2015 and 2019, we empirically estimated the influence of the integration of basic medical insurance on Chinese residents through the difference-in-difference method based on propensity score matching (PSM-DID). Results: Our findings indicate that the integration of basic medical insurance improved the subjective wellbeing of the insured population. Additionally, through heterogeneity testing, we validated that the integration increased the subjective wellbeing of residents from less developed regions in West China and rural areas, as well as those with older adult dependents. However, the subjective wellbeing of low-income groups, who were expected to benefit more from the URRBMI, did not improve significantly, at least in the short term. Conclusion: According to our research, the integration of basic medical insurance in China supports the country's objective of achieving equality and providing universal benefits for its residents. The introduction of the URRBMI has had a positive impact on the subjective wellbeing of insured individuals. This is particularly beneficial for disadvantaged groups in less developed regions, as well as for residents with older adult dependents. However, the subjective wellbeing of the middle-income group has improved significantly, whereas that of the low-income group, despite being the intended beneficiaries of the integration, did not show significant improvement. Recommendations: From a funding perspective, we recommend establishing a dynamic adjustment funding system that links residents' medical insurance funding standards with their disposable income. Regarding the utilization of the URRBMI, the benefit packages should be expanded, particularly by covering more outpatient services through risk pooling. We call for further research with additional data and continued efforts on improving wellbeing of residents, particularly for disadvantaged populations.

Sampling survey of disability in 0-6 year-old children in China.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current status of disabled children and prevalence of disabilities in children aged 0-6 years and their risk factors, and to provide scientific evidence for making relevant policies for disabled children. METHODS: In a community-based cross-sectional study, multi-phase, stratified, unequal proportional and cluster sampling was adopted to survey 60 124 children aged 0-6 years. All the investigated children were screened for disabilities, and those with positive screening tests were further diagnosed by various specialties. RESULTS: A total of 819 children were diagnosed as disabled with an overall prevalence of 1.362%, 0.155% for hearing disability, 0.160% for visual disability, 0.931% for intelligent disability, 0.424% for limb disability, and 0.101% for mental disability. Prevalence of disability in children was higher in rural areas, and in families with two or more children, low educational level or in divorced families. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of disability can be reduced by economic development, improvement of health care and quality of population, as well as harmonious familial relationship, early prevention of disability, and preschool education for disabled children.