POLITICAL ECONOMY REALITIES IN THE CHINESE HEALTH SECTOR Health financing reforms for a mobile society

While the challenges resulting from the marketization of health services in China during the post-1979 reform period have been well documented, recent work has called for analysis of reforms currently underway and the underlying factors explaining why certain reforms work or do not work. This article proposes that the political economy of health financing constitutes one such factor affecting the ability of reforms to address the challenges presented by China's significant population of internal migrants. We find analysis of relevant structural factors, institutions and actors' incentives sheds valuable light on reform dynamics in the context of an increasingly mobile society.