First of all, medical service itself is a high-cost industry. Medical institutions need to pay for human resources, equipment, construction, insurance and other expenses. These costs will be directly or indirectly reflected in the patient's medical expenses.
Secondly, the demand for medical services is very flexible. Many hospitals have adopted the strategy of "low medical service price and high drug price", that is, to attract patients by reducing medical service fees, but to make profits by using the high-priced strategy in drug sales. As a result, many patients are promoted by high-priced drugs, repeated examinations and other medical services when purchasing drugs, which increases the medical expenses of patients.
Finally, the information asymmetry in the medical service market is also one of the reasons for the high medical expenses. Patients lack professional knowledge of diseases, and it is difficult to make accurate judgments on medical services and drugs, while doctors and medical institutions have more advantages in professional knowledge and information, and it is easy to increase medical expenses by means of sales promotion and overtreatment.
To sum up, the implementation of zero price difference for drugs in hospitals in China cannot completely solve the problem of high medical expenses. Strengthening the supervision of medical service market, perfecting the medical insurance system and improving patients' health literacy require the joint efforts of all parties.