Promoting Healthy Village Construction: Challenges and Countermeasures

Healthcare is an important component for poverty alleviation in China, and it requires constant efforts as this sector in the rural areas in China will remain underdeveloped and short of high-quality resources for a long time. Moreover, promoting healthy village construction is crucial for consolidating and expanding the key achievements obtained in poverty alleviation and for implementing the rural revitalization strategy in China. This study uses policy research, field research, data analysis, and expert discussion methods. We first summarize the practical needs for promoting healthy village construction and present the achievements and main problems regarding healthcare improvement for poverty alleviation. Subsequently, we explore the development objectives and key tasks for healthy village construction and propose several countermeasures prospectively. To prevent the population that have been lifted out of poverty from returning to it due to illness and better meet their diverse needs for health, we suggest that China should (1) increase government financial investment and scientifically optimize the layout of health resources and human resources; (2) provide health services based on the whole life cycle and the whole process of health; (3) maximize the unique advantages of traditional Chinese medicine to draw a bottom line for epidemic prevention and control in rural areas; (4) ensure drug security based on the healthcare service coordination mechanism within the country region; (5) establish a regional adjustment and balancing mechanism for medical insurance funds to ensure the accuracy and fairness of health policies; and (6) conduct rural doctors training programs.