Abstract Objective To investigate the disease constitution and hospitalization expenses in Songqiao Central Township Health Center (SqC) in Gaoyou City of Jiangsu Province in 2010, so as to provide the baseline data of disease burden for further study. Methods The inpatient records of SqC in 2010 were collected. The first discharge diagnoses were classified according to the International Classification of Disease 10 (ICD-10). The general information of the inpatients, discharge diagnosis, hospitalization expenses, disease category, age, gender, and reimbursement of expenses were described and analyzed by using Microsoft Excel 2003 and SPSS 13.0 software. Results a) The total number of inpatients was 1036 in 2010, and the gender ratio was about 1.0 (50.7% vs. 49.3%); b) The disease spectrum included 17 categories. The cumulative percents of the top 5 systematic diseases were 81.2%, including the respiratory, digestive, neoplasm, circulatory diseases, and injury, poisoning amp; external causes; c) The top 15 diseases were pneumonia, fracture, malignant neoplasm, benign neoplasm, acute bronchitis, cerebral infarction, hypertension, acute appendicitis, emphysema, cholecystolithias accompanied with cholecystitis, inguinal hernia, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic bronchitis and superficial injury; d) The patients suffering from pneumonia and acute bronchitis were mainly over 65 years old and younger than 5; e) The number of chronic diseases significantly increased with age, especially after the age of 35 years old, and reached the peak at the age over 65 years old; while the acute diseases were mainly distributed at the age younger than 15 yeas old and older than 65 years old. The average length of stay, the total hospitalization and out-of-pocket expenses per capita of the chronic diseases were more than those of the acute ones (13.8 days vs. 9.9 days, ? 3 082 vs. ? 2 615; ? 417 vs. ? 371, respectively); f)The length of stay and total hospitalization per capita were quite higher than the other township health centers (11.6 days vs. 5.2 days, ? 3 001.4 vs. ? 1 004.6); and g) Both of the total reimbursement and out-of-pocket expenses per capita accounted for 44%-57% of the total hospitalization expenses. Among the total reimbursement, the payment from New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) accounted for over 99%, while that from Medical Aid Scheme only accounted for less than 2%. Conclusion a) The top 3 systematic diseases of SqC are seen in respiratory system, digestive system and neoplasm. The acute diseases are mainly pneumonia and fracture; b) The number of acute or chronic diseases increases significantly with age, especially after 35 years old. Both adolescents and the aged suffer from the heaviest burden of diseases; c) The average length of stay and hospitalization expenses pre capita of SqC are much higher than those of the other township health centers; and d) NCMS is the major source of reimbursement. However, the proportion of out-of-pocket expenses and the burden of diseases are still very high and heavy. Thus the policy of NCMS needs to be adjusted step by step in future.