Health Poverty Reduction Policies and Effectiveness Evaluation in China Since 2015: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Poverty eradication and good health and well-being are at the core of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concerns. As illness greatly contributes to poverty, addressing health poverty is crucial to combat the broader issue. Global poverty reduction (PR) efforts currently face significant challenges. Remarkably, China accelerated its poverty alleviation efforts in 2015 with the implementation of the Health Poverty Alleviation Project. However, existing knowledge about China's health PR policies is scattered across the literature, which impedes a comprehensive understanding among researchers and practitioners. This study seeks to bridge knowledge gap as input for further research by synthesizing relevant policies and literature. It reviews China's 12 policies on health PR since 2015, analyzes the governance logic and key governance initiatives for health PR, and assesses the effectiveness of governance in this area by reviewing 27 pieces of literature. Most studies show that China's policies to alleviate health poverty have enhanced PR. China initially established a nationwide, systematic, and coordinated health poverty governance system, which demonstrated good PR effects. These insights offer valuable lessons for the global poverty reduction agenda, such as accurate identification of the poor, systematic implementation of health PR, and sustained promotion of health PR. We hope that these efforts will help some nations or regions optimize their PR initiatives and advance the cause of eradicating poverty worldwide.

Keywords: allocation of healthcare resources; health; health policies; health poverty; medical security; poverty; poverty reduction.

Figure 1.

The cycle of disease-poverty.

Figure 2.

The logic of health poverty governance in China.