Chinese patients are expected to save between 60 and 70 billion yuan ($8.7 billion - $10.1 billion) in drug expenditure this year, after the government banned all public hospitals from drug price mark-ups.
Wang Hesheng, deputy minister in charge of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, told a news conference on Saturday that public hospitals selling drugs at inflated prices caused problems such as "big prescriptions" and excessive use of antibiotics.[Special Coverage]
Health authorities banned all public medical institutions at grass roots from marking up the price of drugs in 2011, and all county-level public hospitals were ordered to stop the practice in 2015, Wang said.
The ban will cover all public hospitals by the end of the year.
The government will take steps to help hospitals make up for the loss in revenue after they abolish the practice, such as increasing prices for services provided by medical staff, and increasing government investment, he said.
Wang also said people's medical bills won't increase as a result of adjustments to the health insurance program.
