Healthcare and insurance sectors will see policy fine-tuning, ‘moral support’ rather than ‘groundbreaking news’ from Beijing, analysts say
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenJulie ZhangPublished: 8:44am, 4 Mar 2026Investors are watching Beijing’s annual “two sessions” this week for signs that the country will address drug pricing and shore up its drug payment system, as a new form of insurance introduced in January for expensive, innovative treatments struggles to gain traction.Near-term policy impact on the sector was likely to be limited, analysts said ahead of the annual meetings of China’s top legislature and political advisory body, which begin in Beijing on Wednesday.
“We are not expecting much groundbreaking news related to healthcare from the two sessions,” said Tony Ren, head of Asia healthcare research at Macquarie Capital. “The impact tends to be moral support rather than concrete results.”
Zhang Jialin, Nomura’s head of China healthcare research, said the meetings could yield fine-tuning on certain policies like volume-based procurement (VBP) and commercial insurance, but nothing that would have “immediate material impact on listed companies’ financials”.
“The market is looking for a mildly supportive policy tone towards China healthcare at the two sessions, especially around innovative drug research and development, drug pricing policy and commercial health insurance,” said Cui Cui, head of healthcare research for Asia at Jefferies.
