Our cover story for our upcoming issue explores business opportunities arising from China’s planned reform of its health care system. Over the course of reporting the story we interviewed a number of patients and doctors about their experiences with health care in China, much of which didn’t make it into the final version of the story. We’ve included some notable quotes here.
PATIENTS:
From a Shanghai woman whose 17-year-old had received a traumatic brain injury in an automobile accident:
“Many medicines are not included in the medical insurance [coverage plan], so those medicines can’t be reimbursed. If you want to have good medicines you cannot use medical insurance to pay the bills.”
From a 28-year-old Shanghai man with chronic complications in his urinary tract:
“If you don’t have guanxi [connections] in this hospital you cannot be hospitalized, despite the fact that you have a lot of money. The hospital is so full, patients from the whole country are here, the doctors are really busy and tired.”
DOCTORS:
From a Shanghai-based doctor at a public hospital:
“Every day each doctor receives 70-80 patients. If we talk to each patient for more than 10 minutes, it is really exhausting.”
In reference to the effect China’s US$125 billion spending will have on reforming the health care system:
“If the supervision of the spending is appropriate, if the money really goes to patients’ medical health or their medical insurance card, it is very good and helps a lot. But if not, it could be the same as what happened after the [Sichuan] earthquake, where the donated money went to corrupt officials’ pockets. We do think the government’s intention is good, but the result is hard to predict.”
From a Beijing-based doctor and professor:
“The biggest problem is that the number of doctors is too small. Beijing should allow doctors to work in different hospitals to fully utilize resources. We should improve the quality of health care in community health centers, then patients will go there for minor illnesses and relieve the pressure on large comprehensive hospitals.”
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