Reform on medical care, insurance and medicine should be reinforced to relieve the difficulty of receiving treatment, Premier Li Keqiang said in a written instruction to a national teleconference on medical reform in Beijing on Aug 27.

Premier Li said the new round of medical reform has brought significant achievement with Chinese special methods. This is mostly due to contributions by reform participants and medical staff, who have dedicated themselves to carrying out medical reform and protecting the public’s health.

In the new era, tough measures will be taken on the integrated reform of medical care, insurance and medicine, the Premier said. Breakthroughs must be made in reducing extortionate drug prices, deepening reform on public hospitals, improving basic healthcare insurance and the tiered diagnosis and treatment system, as well as developing Internet Plus healthcare.

All these efforts are being made to encourage society to respect healthcare workers and value health, and to build a healthy China, the Premier stressed.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan attended the meeting. She noted the current reform needs more efforts to help policies settle in and eliminate any major problems. Sustainable financial input should be given to reform to bring real benefits to the public and incentives to medical staff, then the healthcare cause can welcome prosperity.

Local governments and related departments should coordinate medical care, and insurance and medicine systems to enhance the construction of a basic medical and health system with a focus on addressing the issues, such as unbalanced medical sources and expensive medical treatment, the vice-premier said.

Efforts should be made to accelerate the price reduction of anti-cancer drugs, promote pilot work on national centralized procurement of drugs, and improve basic medicine system to squeeze drug prices and ensure quality and safety.

She also called for further reforms in medical service prices, financial input and salary systems to improve hospital management and performance appraisal, and mobilize the enthusiasm of medical staff.

The vice-premier urged reforming medical insurance payment methods and strengthening comprehensive medical assistance to prevent patients and their families from falling into or returning to poverty due to illnesses.

Allocation of medical resources should be optimized; there should be an improved grassroots talent incentive mechanism covering general practitioners and family doctors, and social forces’ participation in this move should be promoted to provide qualified healthcare services for the general public, according to the vice-premier.