China to keep family planning policy, merge health ministry and family planning commission

"China will not change its basic state policy on family planning, Wang Feng, deputy head of the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, told a press conference [Monday] in response to a question regarding the possibility of a change in the policy," Xinhua reports. In addition, "[t]he State Council, China's Cabinet, on Sunday unveiled a government restructuring plan which proposed to merge the existing Ministry of Health with the National Population and Family Planning Commission, among other restructuring proposals," the news service notes (3/11). "The integration of the two ministerial-level departments is aimed at better upholding the basic national family planning policy, improving medical and health care services and deepening institutional reform in the medical care and public health sectors, State Councilor Ma Kai said in a report to the country's national legislature," Xinhua writes in a separate article. "The proposed national health and family planning commission will be responsible for planning the resource allocation of medical care, public health and family planning services, establishing a basic medicine system to standardize drug prices, formulating China's family planning policy, and supervising and administering public health, medical care and family planning services, Ma said," the news service notes (3/10).