Universal health coverage (UHC) is driving the global health agenda. Many countries have embarked on national policy reforms towards this goal, including China. In 2009, the Chinese government launched a new round of healthcare reform towards UHC, aiming to provide universal coverage of basic healthcare by the end of 2020. The year of 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of China’s most recent healthcare reform. Sharing China’s experience is especially timely for other countries pursuing reforms to achieve UHC. This study describes the social, economic and health context in China, and then reviews the overall progress of healthcare reform (1949 to present), with a focus on the most recent (2009) round of healthcare reform. The study comprehensively analyses key reform initiatives and major achievements according to four aspects: health insurance system, drug supply and security system, medical service system and public health service system. Lessons learnt from China may have important implications for other nations, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong primary healthcare system as basis.

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Non-Fickian diffusion has been increasingly documented in hydrology and modeled by promising time nonlocal transport models. While previous studies showed that most of the time nonlocal models are identical with correlated parameters, fundamental challenges remain in real-world applications regarding model selection and parameter definition. This study compared three popular time nonlocal transport models, including the multi-rate mass transfer (MRMT) model, the continuous time random walk (CTRW) framework, and the tempered time fractional advection–dispersion equation (tt-fADE), by focusing on their physical interpretation and feasibility in capturing non-Fickian transport. Mathematical comparison showed that these models have both related parameters defining the memory function and other basic-transport parameters (i.e., velocity v and dispersion coefficient D) with different hydrogeologic interpretations. Laboratory column transport experiments and field tracer tests were then conducted, providing data for model applicability evaluation. Laboratory and field experiments exhibited breakthrough curves with non-Fickian characteristics, which were better represented by the tt-fADE and CTRW models than the traditional advection–dispersion equation. The best-fit velocity and dispersion coefficient, however, differ significantly between the tt-fADE and CTRW. Fitting exercises further revealed that the observed late-time breakthrough curves were heavier than the MRMT solutions with no more than two mass-exchange rates and lighter than the MRMT solutions with power-law distributed mass-exchange rates. Therefore, the time nonlocal models, where some parameters are correlated and exchangeable and the others have different values, differ mainly in their quantification of pre-asymptotic transport dynamics. In all models tested above, the tt-fADE model is attractive, considering its small fitting error and the reasonable velocity close to the measured flow rate.

Backward models for super‐diffusion in infinite domains have been developed to identify pollutant sources, while backward models for non‐Fickian diffusion in bounded domains remain unknown. To restrict possible source locations and improve the accuracy of backward probabilities, this technical note develops the backward model for super‐diffusion governed by the fractional‐divergence advection‐dispersion equation (FD‐ADE) in bounded domains. The resultant backward model is the fractional‐flux advection‐dispersion equation (FF‐ADE) with modified boundary conditions. In particular, the Dirichlet boundary condition in the forward FD‐ADE becomes a spatial‐nonlocal sink term in the backward FF‐ADE (to account for preferential flow), while the nonlocal, non‐zero‐value Neumann (or Robin) boundary condition in the forward FD‐ADE switches to the zero‐value Robin (or Neumann) boundary condition in the backward FF‐ADE (to eliminate pollutant source outside the domain). Field applications show that the backward location probability density function can approximate the point source location in a natural river or fluvial aquifer. The impact of reflective/absorbing boundaries and the upstream boundary location on the backward probability density function is also discussed.