OBJECTIVE： To evaluate the accessibility of essential medicine for common chronic disease in primary health care institutions in Hubei province， and to provide evidence for improving essential medicine policy and strengthening the management level of chronic disease. METHODS： The purchase data of essential medicine for 6 kinds of common chronic disease （diabetes， hypertension， gastric ulcer， asthma， rheumatoid arthritis and epilepsy） were collected from centralized drug procurement platform of Hubei province from 2015 to 2017； essential medicin equipping rate was used to evaluate the availability， and minimum daily wage was used to evaluate the affordability. So that accessibility could be analyzed and suggestions for improving accessibility and affordability were put forward. RESULTS： From 2015 to 2017， the equipping rate of essential drugs varied from 40.00％ to 71.43％，and the availability of those medicine for common chronic disease was at a low level. The affordability improved slightly （the ratio of medication cost to minimum daily wage was decreased from 1.91 to 1.79 from 2015 to 2017） but remained low， and the ratio of medication cost to minimum daily wage for more than 70％ of 21 drugs was less than 1. CONCLUSIONS： Since the accessibility of essential medicine for common chronic disease was at a low level in Hubei province， it is suggested to optimize kinds of essential medicine for chronic disease， to promote the construction of hierarchical medical system， to reduce the price of essential medicine for chronic disease， and to improve the compensation mechanism of essential medicine for chronic disease to further strengthen the management of chronic disease in primary health care institutions.