China: Health Care Reform

Josie Liu from China in Transition comments on the China health care reform blueprint.

1 comment

  • zhang

    Hello Friends,

    It is very sad that people in China, especially who live in countryside, wipe out all savings and in heavy debt when one of their family members is ill. My mother is currently in hospital and have to have some procedure done and the city hospital charged her 100k Yuan for the procedure and 1000 Yuan each day for hospitalization because of blood clogging problem. Although she buys insurance from a government insurance program, only 10% of the cost may be reimbursed. She lives in countryside and has no real income, and no savings. In normal time, we (me and my siblings) provide financial support for my parent living expenses. For this procedure, I provided 10k us dollar, which is most of my savings in the U.S since I have just bought a home last year. My five other siblings provided the rest of the money. Since they all live in countryside, which is all earnings for a year.

    Here is how the current government insurance works:

    1. No reimbursement if you do not go to the hospital. For example, doctor will go to my mother’s home to take care of her and we pay cash. There is nothing being reimbursed.

    2. If you go to the town hospital, 60 percent of the cost will be reimbursed. In most cases, the town hospital is not sure if their diagnoses are correct. They suggest you need to go to the county hospital for further diagnose.

    3. Then you go to the county hospital, they will charge you a lot of money (in our case, 10k Yuan for two weeks) and the insurance will cover about 30% of the cost. Then, you were told that they can do much and you need to go to the city hospital.

    4. Then, you were sent to city hospital and only 10% of cost will be reimbursed. Currently, tens of thousands of Yuan are charged for a lot of procedures.

    Although I am very sad about the current situation, I am hopeful that there will be changes made for the betterment of the people.

    Sincerely,

    Zhang

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