

At present, China spends just over 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare expenditure, a figure that will continue to grow as the country experiences a rapidly aging population that will cause enormous future stress on the government budget. With healthcare costs rising year-on-year, the Chinese government has taken steps to push out reforms aimed at reducing costs throughout the healthcare system. The goal of the recently launched healthcare reform is essentially to develop a more cost-efficient decentralized healthcare system by encouraging the proliferation of general practitioners and private healthcare facilities as well as developing a more hierarchical system for public. This white paper will first analyze the demographic and financial reasons driving the reforms, then assess how the reforms will impact doing business for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health care service providers, and finally declare who will gain the most opportunities out of China’s healthcare reforms.