The story of how each country has tried to regulate the front-line provision and financing of health care has highlighted some key gaps in the approaches taken. In India, the largest set of providers and health transactions have been largely neglected by public policy and regulatory agencies, with the possible exception of the judiciary and consumer courts, which have played a limited role in influencing health care practices. The fact that most village doctors are the most common type of provider to the poor makes it more difficult to follow through the stated policy priority of reducing inequalities in health care without addressing these providers.27 The gap in effective regulation has been exacerbated by the interests of the health professions, which have not focused on the key regulatory concerns. The fragmented financing system has also limited the ability of the state (or collective purchasers) to influence providers’ behavior and reduce prices through strategic purchasing of health care.
In China, the key gaps include weaknesses in the regulatory capacity of local governments and in the degree to which they are answerable to the community, the limited (but rapidly growing) voice for consumers through the media or civil society, and the stunting of professional self-regulation. Health insurance is becoming increasingly important, but many issues remain to be addressed concerning differences in the benefit packages in localities at different levels of development and the problems associated with the very rapid rate of urbanization.
Although key regulatory gaps remain in each country, it is still worthwhile to ask, What can China and India learn from each other in how they regulate their health care markets? and, What can other countries learn from their experiences? In both countries, it is apparent that traditional approaches that depend exclusively on state-directed mechanisms are limited in their ability to regulate health systems that are pluralistic and marketized. What seems to work better are regulatory approaches that are based on institutions that are working locally. For example, local scheme managers in China are developing their own ways to monitor provider practices. In India, private hospitals are setting up their own accreditation schemes. All actors have potential to contribute to regulation and could be better incorporated. In particular, the health professions, civil society organizations, and the media could play stronger roles in both countries, even in the coproduction of service provision and regulation.28