The Effect on Health Care of the Increasingly Aging Population in China



The Effect on Health Care of the Increasingly Aging Population in China

Introduction

A country working with such a large population, especially for those developing countries, generally has to deal with the various issues that relating to its population situation, such as the living conditions and environments of the people. When one examines the social progress and economic development in China, it becomes clear that they are deeply tired to the population situation.

China & the Aging Population: Benefits and Challenges

Yes, China is such a country that generates this issue with large population. When we see our clothes, shoes, laptops, and other products that label as “Made in China,” we probably think about the cheap labor force brought profits to China; indeed, before the aging population reaches a certain level, the labor force is still one of the advantages that giving more critical human capital to the government in terms of the economic sector.

However, as the population has aged, there is a big demand on health care for the elders in the following decades, which faces the challenges of increasing burden for the Chinese government. In order to adjusting the issues that shortage of health facilities and labor forces in the future, the Chinese government should focus on developing various polices for people to have enough resources and prevention programs.

The term 'Population of Ageing', particularly in the State of China is “the process by which older individuals become a proportionally larger share of the total population - was one of the most distinctive demographic events of the twentieth century” (DESA, 2005). Population of ageing becomes a universal phenomenon, occurring as a visible feature for populations of Japan and some European countries.

The census revealed the “Mid-year Population by Older Age Groups and Sex - Custom Region - Chin” that indicated that in 2000, the population of people who age 60 and over is 127 million which 10.1% of the total population in 2000, and around 185 million which 13.8 % in 2012. It also predicts that the country would have around 349 million which 25.1% of the total population in 2030, and about 459 million that 35% of the total population in 2050, which more than a quarter (U.S. Census).

Based on the data, we can see the aging population is rapid developed than other countries, and the development of population aging is faster than its economic development. The tremendous amount of aging population brings a challenge to the balance of the health care budgets for the elders and to fiscal crisis in terms of the health care planning for the people. Thus, the increasingly aging population deeply affects Chinese people's ability to access to health care, especially for people who living in rural China.

The population transition in China generally started from the period of its independence, so mortality rate was initially and significantly rapid decline. The national fertility transition began in 1970's while the One-Child Policy introduced in ...