Chinese villages eye health care for 15 cents

Chinese villages eye health care for 15 cents

edition.cnn.com

Beijing knows the health care system is in trouble. There's little to show for past reform efforts. So, the government says over the next three years it will spend $125 billion (or less than $97 for each of China's 1.3 billion people) to build more than 2,000 new hospitals and clinics, as well as cap the spiraling cost of prescription drugs.

A pilot program is under way where patients in small villages receive health care for just one RMB (US$0.15).

I went to a clinic in Xinshui, a tiny village in the Ningxia Autonomous Region in northwest China, which is participating in the pilot pr

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At this point China's health programs are terrible, only the ones earning good salaries can afford decent treatment.

However the Chinese are trying to prove that 'free' healthcare for all is possible and not too expensive, as many ATSers would like to believe. China has 1 billion people to look after, if it can do it, surely the US can too.

Moreover healthcare is a sign of pride for your country. How can you be proud if your own fellow citizen are ignored in their pain and left to die? That is a more important achievement than going to the effin' planet Mars.

edition.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is the way health care works:

You have a system where the wealthy get better treatment, but the poor get 'good' treatment (and often free anyways.. only time I ever went to a ER it was packed with illegal immigrants). Sure, it cost more, very expensive.. but it's good.

Or you could have a free system. Where wealthy and poor alike get the same treatment. Horrible, horrible treatment. You will, if you have the money, probably flee the country to a Nation that does not have socialized medicine for medical care.

America has the best health care facilities in the World. Expensive facilities, but the best.

Cap doctor pay, hospital revenue and offer all those services on a government budget.. and the best doctors, researchers and technicians will leave. Just as the best from all around the World, Europe, China, India, America's etc come here to practice. You WILL destroy the health care system if you socialize it.

Of course then there is a matter of bankrupting the people through taxes.

China, they are a Socialist state, and they don't have the infrastructure in place to support a decent health care system. But if it's to be State Run .. it will never be up to par if the rest of the World.. not 1.3 billion people.

Sorry Rockpuck,I aint buying what your selling here

I am amazed that a great country like yours doesnt go the route so many other industrial countries have with a free health care

well its not free as anyone who works pays taxes in is helping out.I have no problems with anyone using it,no matter if they work or not

For if I was ever in their situation,I would hope to recieve the same treatment no matter what I paid in

Havnt used the NHS since my daughter was born(and they did as always a great job)but I have been to the local BUPA hospital from time to time when picking up relatives who have had check ups there

you do realize we can also go private if we want to take out our own health insurance policy?

I think some of my brothers across the pond worship money to the extent it colours their outlook on other parts of the population who are not doing so well.I dont mind paying taxes for what we have here,I am amazed that people like you grumble and say its not right?

No offence mate

reply to post by noangels

well its not free as anyone who works pays taxes in is helping out.I have no problems with anyone using it,no matter if they work or not

There in lies the key problem .. it won't be the poor (they leech off society as it is) who will pay for it. It won't be the rich (with all their tax shelters) it will be the Middle Class. The ever dwindling, over taxed, pay for everything Middle Class.

Why doesn't our Nation go the route so many of our Socialist friends?

Why do we have a better health care system than you?

Exactly.

Also, you apparently are not American and probably have not studied our Constitution, but nowhere in the Constitution does it grant the Government the right to dictate Health Care. In any form. What is not explicitly listed as a responsibility of the Federal Government by that document is a duty of the States. Anything that is not amended into the Constitution in terms of what ever destructive plan Obama rolls out, will be unconstitutional without the appropriate State voting.

An estimated 1-2% consumption decline sparked massive losses across the broader American Economy last November-Feb.. taking an extra 5-10% out of the Middle Class's income via taxes would decimate the economy.

I count myself lucky to be English my friend

Who says you have a better health care system than us?If i wanted too I would just go private if I felt the NHS wasnt my best choice-but at least there is the NHS there!

SO because your bit of paper that is the constitution doesnt mention free health care then you shouldnt?realy!

lol Like I said Im lucky to be English,where we show compassion to all no matter the life style choices,skin colour or bank accounts.

And we will never change that view,I thought that america was the land of the the free-untill it comes to health care

reply to post by noangels

Who says you have a better health care system than us?

Common knowledge? If you need a specialty operation, treatments, people quite often pay to come to America. The only people in America who seem to complain about the health care system are those that don't have insurance. When they get the medical bill, and they factor the cost of insurance, people typically find the insurance was the cheaper route.. but hind sight is 20/20 .. laziness is not an excuse for the working and middle classes to pay for universal health care.

SO because your bit of paper that is the constitution doesnt mention free health care then you shouldnt?realy!

..........That's the purpose of that "bit of paper"........... I actually find that insulting.

lol Like I said Im lucky to be English,where we show compassion to all no matter the life style choices,skin colour or bank accounts.

You would say that the average UK citizen is happy with the NHS? I have family from England, they were not to fond of the NHS, among other things.

And we will never change that view,I thought that america was the land of the the free-untill it comes to health care

Ah, such ignorance. In the US it is illegal for a hospital to turn a patient away for any reason aside from abusiveness. If a man with no insurance, no ID, no nothing comes in with a serious ailment, he's given treatment and released, the US picks up the tab. All those illegal immigrants who don't pay into the system but reap the rewards abuse the health care system just as well, they don't have insurance, get full medicare and medicaid benefits and often don't pay a dime.

And please keep in mind, America has 50 states and 300,000,000+ people. It's a weeee bit bigger than you're little island.

reply to post by Rockpuck


Sure sometimes people come to get treatment in the US. If you guys build the Scanners and Treatment-units up there you intend to keep them a while in your country to increase profits for you white collars....

I'm a Belgian and i'm all for Social Healthcare. Up here it cost me about 15 euro's a month and i'm completly covered for everything thats proven to increase your Lifestandard. Also if i fall on vacation while being drunk everything comes to a "Maximum Bill" of 350 euro's .

So tell me could you beat that with you GREEDY Healthare?

Hmmm.... $0.15 Chinese village healthcare?

I once saw this lady in Vietnam who you could get a beer from for a nickle.

She siphoned it out of a bucket and into a "glass" for you. She had three teeth.

China has a lot going for it that could make this work. Like shooting people who argue with the gov and harvesting organs from "enemies of the state" to sell to richy riches. Both, I'm sure, help greatly toward cost reduction. Then there's the quality. I know Vietnam isnt China and some toothless beer siphoner isnt a doctor but at some point between "village" and "cheap" there will be a coloration.

reply to post by noangels

IF I felt that the best doctors would be willing to work for less;

IF I believed that the hospitals would be satisfied with making less money;

IF I believed insurance companies had my best interests at heart rather than their profit margin;

IF I thought that pharmaceutical companies would bite the bullet so people could afford their medicines;

IF I had faith in a doctor who is getting kickbacks form pharmaceuticals to prescribe their medicines over cheaper treatments;

IF everybody would use health care equally instead of some abusing the system every time they have a sniffle;

IF our government wasn't already soooo deep ion debt and now was happily trying to spend a few trillion dollars more with no way to pay for it;

IF our government had any kind of track record of administering services fairly and equitably;

IF our taxes weren't already so high as to be ludicrous;

IF there were some kind of consensus among government that an optional private plan had to be part of the deal;

IF I thought for one moment that everyone would pay into the health care system, even if it were a pittance for those who make a pittance;

IF the plans being discussed were not 1000+ pages long and contained things no one knew until someone not in government read them;

IF huge amounts of money had not already been given away to insurance companies, who promptly abused the gifts and then had the gall to ask for more;

IF the proposal wasn't chock full of threats of fines and imprisonment to anyone who has concerns about their health care under the plan;

IF I trusted Obama, Pelosi, Boxer, Kennedy, Reed, or any of the rest of those idiots we have sitting in the nation's capital;

THEN perhaps I would feel differently about the proposals for free health care.

The US is not the UK. I'm very glad you are happy with your system. That does not mean that every socialized health care plan will work everywhere.

TheRedneck

reply to post by Spartannic


Belgium has a population of 10 million. America has a population of 300 million. It's common knowledge that a bureaucracy looses effect the wider it's stretched.. the Bureaucratic health care system that will be put in place would be so large, so expansive and powerful .. many millions would be lost in the system of red tape. It would span 50 states, cover 300 million people and an untold millions of illegals.. It would do many European countries well to look at their debt to GDP ratios to see that your services are not afforded through tax receipts, but through debt .. all good things come to an end eventually.

Ultimately for me it comes down to one question: Why should I pay for someone else's health care just because they were to lazy to get health insurance?