China: Ailing system leaves sick to pay up or die

Sound somewhat familiar?


Ailing system leaves sick to pay up or die

China's healthcare system has been swept up in the country's tide of capitalism, writes Jonathan Watts, and it is the rural poor who are paying the price

Jonathan Watts in Jinhua village
Friday September 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


The richest man in one of the poorest villages in China is the "barefoot doctor" Hua Wanxiang, who sells cigarettes, beer and antibiotics.

Although he lives in Jinhua - a remote community deep in the hills of Guizhou province - Hua has made his money by moving with the times.

In the communist past, offering rudimentary treatment to the sick would have been enough for the village doctor to secure his status in Jinhua.

But in the capitalist present, money determines social rank. This helps to explain why the village doctor recently padlocked his old clinic shut and opened a shop next door selling groceries alongside medicine.

It was an easy move. The only medical equipment he owns is a stethoscope, some tweezers and a sterilising bowl. He can now sell tobacco while referring locals to hospital for lung diseases; flog crates of beer one day and painkillers the next.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2168522,00.html

No more social safety net and a gap between rich and poor that is one of the largest and fastest growing in the world.

What do you expect from a country that was dominated by foreigners for over a hundred years. China has a huge growing middle class that is able to buy things. Of course they will always have poor people but so so we.

model its health care program on it.

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