PICC Health Insurance launches unified card system

PICC Health Insurance Co Ltd, a subsidiary of one of China's largest insurers, People's Insurance Company (Group) of China, has launched a unified card integrating health consulting, expert diagnosis, treatment and one-stop payment.

A total of 2,015 hospitals, more than 800 health care centers and 40,000 drug stores will all be concluded in the unified card system.

According to Song Fuxing, president of PICC Health, the company's move is to better integrate health resources. It is not only aimed to help to address the difficulties in receiving diagnosis but also improve the awareness of people's health management.

"The healthy China concept will focus on disease prevention, not just treatment," said Dong Yuxing, deputy general manager for healthcare management at PICC Health.

The company is experimenting with business models ranging from assisting local governments with healthcare administration, to managed care packages, to various insurance products, according to Dong.

China's healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP grew from about 2 percent in 2005 to 3.5 percent in 2009 when the reform started, to about 6 percent today. In a time of rapid GDP growth, this was almost a tripling of real healthcare spending. Total expenditures are now about 4 trillion yuan ($435 billion) and research by Deloitte Analysis predicts it will top 8 trillion yuan by 2020. By 2030, total Chinese spending on healthcare will reach 16 trillion yuan, 10 percent of that year's expected GDP.