The Study on Healthcare Access of Rural Residents in China: A Case Study of LISHUI City Zhejiang Province

Abstract

The study aimed: 1) to explore the Chinese people access to the healthcare system in rural areas, LISHUI city in Zhejiang province, China, 2) to analyze factors affecting the rural resident’s satisfaction in accessing to the healthcare service in Lishui city in Zhejiang province and 3) to search for the problems and the policy guidelines in Public Health Care for the Chinese people in LISHUI city in Zhejiang province, China. The tools to collect data was questionnaire. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Multiple Regression analysis. The results revealed that 1) the overall means of the healthcare system factor is moderate (x̅= 3.31, SD= 0.82), When considering each aspect, The highest factor was the family caregiver (x̅= 3.39, SD = 0.692) the second factor was Community welfares (x̅= 3.41, SD = 0.79) followed by Family Resources (x̅= 3.39, SD = 0.82) , Social Support (x̅= 3.32, SD = 0.85) and Quality of healthcare services provision (x̅= 2.98, SD = 0.82) respectively. 2) The quality of healthcare services provision (X5) has the strongest positive effect on healthcare services provision, followed by social support (X3), community welfares (X4), and family resources (X2). The model shows 66.5% of the variance in healthcare services access. The findings indicate that providing quality healthcare services and social support are crucial factors in enhancing satisfaction of healthcare accessibility for individuals residing in rural areas. And 3) the problems accessing to the LISHUI residents' healthcare in Zhejiang province were number of doctors and their efforts that challenges in rural areas, high medical costs, lacking of medical facilities, and nonequivalent medical resources between urban and rural areas. The policy guidelines to access public health care for the LISHUI residents in Zhejiang province were; 1) to decrease the proportion of self-funded medical treatment and to raise the standard of systematic subsidies, 2) to accelerate the construction for more rural medical service centers, 3) to strengthen the specialization of medical services and 4) to improve significantly the medical system more efficiently.