China has experienced a successive rapid economic growth after economic reform and especially after its shift toward market economy in 1990s.With the progress of economic development，the total input on public services and social welfare has increased continuously. However，social welfare condition of the majority of Chinese citizens and particularly of those low-income groups has not been improved，which the author defines as “involution of social welfare” in this paper. Based on health care service analysis，the author analyzes the main causes of the involution of social welfare in China，namely，government retreat，commodification of health care services and serious unfairness of wealth distribution in the responsibility structure of public services and social welfare. The situation of social welfare involution somehow has changed since 2003，when government has adopted a scientific approach of development and implemented a series of person-centered socio-economic policies. In the paper，the author also discusses the preconditions of the development model of social welfare.