“China’s Road”: The Cooperative Medical Services as a “Paradigm”

Abstract

The establishment and development of the CMS effectively changed the long-term situation of the shortage of medicine in China’s rural areas and provided basic medical and health protection for the majority of rural residents. By the late 1970s, China had become a country that had the most comprehensive medical care system. This could be said to be a very significant “health revolution” (World Bank 1994). The CMS had solved the initial health care of rural residents accounting for 80 % of the country’s total population with only 20 % of total health expenses. The “China miracle” was created, a “model to address the problem of the health funds in the developing countries,” “a China mode” in which “the greatest health benefits with minimum investment” was achieved. Health experts also regarded it a rational choice for the then-Chinese government to give priority to prevention, basic medical services, and low-cost promotion of health technology (Culls and West 1979). In 1983, the World Health Organization held the Forum for Cooperative Medical Services, and China was selected to serve as a model of “a backward country achieving the health care level of the most advanced countries, in particular.”

The term “paradigm” was first used by Kuhn in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It mainly referred to the fundamental commitment, shared beliefs, and research consensus upheld by the scientific community in a historical period of time or an overall scientific view. I say that CMS can also be said to be a paradigm with a view to stress its originality in designing the rural health care services: We should not leave the China rural experience behind, following merely the modern discourse, nor should we follow the simple and brutal discourse with “political correctness” such as the increase in investment and the improvement of the technological level.