中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumEqualisation of Basic Public Services and the Public Financial System
Authors: Institute for Fiscal Science, Liu Shangxi, Yang Yuanjie, Zhang Xun
Published by Review of Economic Research, 2008, No. 40
I. Measures of rural public services
1. To abolish agricultural taxes
2. To implement the “two exemptions and one subsidy” for deprived students in the stage of compulsory education in rural areas
3. To promote the New Rural Cooperative Medical Care System Reform in China
4. To gradually integrate compulsory education in the rural areas fully into the coverage of public finance, starting in the western regions of China
5. To extend the New Rural Cooperative Medical Care System Reform into 40% of the counties and districts in China
6. To raise subsidy standards for the insured farmers from 10 Yuan to 20 Yuan per person per year
II. The emphasis of public services in urban areas
1. The construction of basic medical insurance systems, medical and health care systems, reform of pharmaceutical production and circulation systems, three-level disease prevention and control networks at provincial, local and county levels, medical treatment systems for public health emergencies and urban and rural medical assistance systems for workers in urban areas.
2. Regarding urban low-income groups and deprived groups, the basic living expenses of laid-off workers of state-owned enterprises and the basic pensions for retired workers of enterprises must be paid in full on time.
III. The differences in public services
The education budget in China in 2005 was 516.1 billion Yuan, accounting for 2.8% of GDP. Total health expenditure in 2005 was 865.99 billion Yuan, accounting for 4.7% of GDP. Government health budget expenditure was 155.22 billion Yuan, accounting for 17.9% of total health expenditure and only 8.4% of GDP. The average per capita education expenditure for general junior students in China in 2005 was 2277.32 Yuan, and 16 provinces and municipalities were below the national average value. The highest per capita education expenditure was 12,255.10 Yuan in Shanghai, and the lowest was 1255.59 Yuan in Guizhou Province. Therefore, the highest value was 9.76 times greater than the lowest value.
From 2001 to 2005, social security expenditures showed the following characteristics: First, the expenditures in the eastern, central, and western regions of China were apparently like a ladder, with the highest expenditure in the east of China, followed by central China, and the lowest in the west of China. Second, there is a trend that the gap of expenditures between the three regions is widening, increasing from 5.19627 billion Yuan (east and west of China) in 2001 to 10.60576 billion Yuan (east and west of China) in 2005. The gap in 2005 was 2.04 times greater than that in 2001, with the average annual expansion of the gap as 19.53%. Third, the social security expenditures in the three regions have increased year after year, with the average of the three regions increasing from 6.15585 billion Yuan in 2001 to 13.38735 billion Yuan in 2005. In 2005, the figure was comparatively up by 117.47. In regards to the gap in new rural cooperative medical care, as of 30th September 2007, there were 2448 counties (cities, districts) developing new rural cooperative medical care in the whole of China, but there were only 653 counties (cities, districts) in the eastern region that established new rural cooperative medical care, representing 93.69% of the total counties (cities, districts) in the eastern region. In the midwest region, 1,795 counties (cities, districts) launched a new rural cooperative medical care, representing 82.91% of the total central and western counties (cities, districts). The proportion of counties (cities, districts) that have already established new rural cooperative medical care in the east and midwest of China, have a difference of nearly 10% (Hu Junmin, Ai Hongshan, 2009).