Submitted By: Ashley Smith

Dr. Hu Weimin is a doctor in Loudi, China. He specializes in hypertension, one of the main killers in China, and high blood pressure. He provides about 7,000 poor Chinese with free medical advice and provides them with extremely cheap prescriptions. He does all of this out of his own clinic, a clinic that is an old coal shed outside the Loudi Central Hospital. Now you may be asking, “Why is his clinic outside the hospital?” Well, Dr. Hu has been banned from the hospital and shunned by the rest of the doctors. Why would a completely public service oriented doctor be kicked out of the hospital? Because Dr. Hu is bad for business.

Two thirds of the people in China cannot afford medical insurance and have to pay out of pocket every time they need medical attention. What makes this worse is that not only do doctors get a base salary but they also gets a bonus for each prescription written, test ordered, and operation performed. This has caused most doctors to write completely bogus prescriptions to inflate their own salary and it’s all at the expense of the poor and rural populations of China. The people of China have voiced their opinion and they want change. The Chinese government claims that medical reform is a top priority but has yet to do anything about it. It seems as though they can’t do anything about it because the power the hospitals hold outweighs the voice of the public ten fold.

The hospitals do not want change for the same reason the Loudi Central Hospital does not want Dr. Hu to practice medicine. Every person that chooses to see Dr. Hu for free is a prescription that the hospital will not write. It is money the hospital will never receive.

This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on January 16, 2007, and here are some of the questions I asked and that you may want to think about while reading it:

• How does China’s medical system and health care compare to ours?
• What caused these doctors to care more about the money than the people they are suppose to be helping?
• What can the government really do to create a more public service oriented medical care system? If there are ways to change the system why haven’t they been done sooner?
• How is this lack of medical care going to effect the aging population of China?
• The prescription drug companies know their medications are being over prescribed. Do they have a responsibility to step in or is it really just a matter of business?
• On a side note, why has there been such a rise in hypertension, blood pressure, and other cardiovascular conditions in China? Could it be all that beef McDonalds is trying to promote?

[Professor Carr Addendum: I thought it was interesting that three students chose this article. A good article and choice. I publish all three posts here, because you can compare and contrast which parts of the article they found interesting, how the article struck people differently, etc. See also the related earlier blog post Not All Is Well in China: Access to Health Care. I also have a question -- will economic and geopolitical superiority in the future also in large part be determined by which countries deal the most effectively with these types of health care issues?]

Submitted By: Steve Rodger

Providing health care to over 1.3 billion people is a feat that doctors, hospitals and the Chinese government deal with daily. It seems that any single person able to make a significance difference in improving the health of thousands in any population should be lauded. While this is the case for a Chinese doctor, Hu Weimin, he is also being shunned by hospitals for interfering with their profits. Dr. Hu is harmful to the hospital businesses in China because he provides widespread free advice on the most common treatable illnesses in his home region of the Hunan province. In a country where citizens pay more out-of-pocket for health care than any other nation in the world, it is seems appalling that hospitals discourage preventative medicine.

Currently it seems that some Chinese hospital management have a primary focus of commercial profit rather than public service. While hospitals recognize that they need reform, it is unfortunate that financial incentives bring corruption into these environments of healing. Bonuses are given to doctors who prescribe laser surgeries and certain Chinese & imported drugs. Doctors profit directly from this reward system, which provides a substantial part of their salary. A fateful byproduct of the greed stemming from doctors trying to make a better living includes the mis-prescription of drugs. Though this probably occurs from time to time in the US, it is a scary thought to think a doctor could be misusing their medical expertise to profit… While any business has a necessity to prosper, hospitals are organizations which have moral obligations to put the people first.

Since millions of Chinese can not afford health care it is critical that preventative medicine be more widespread. While Dr. Hu is hero leading the way, saving lives and substantial amounts of revenue, he is also causing major headaches for hospitals. Perhaps hospitals should help Dr. Hu’s cause and create preventative programs to teach the masses easy ways to alleviate commonly treatable sicknesses. When do businesses go too far to make a buck? Should the government be policing these hospitals to minimize corruption?

[Professor Carr Addendum: I thought it was interesting that three students chose this article. A good article and good choice. I publish all three posts here, because you can compare and contrast which parts of the article they found interesting, how the article struck people differently, etc. See also the related earlier blog post Not All Is Well in China: Access to Health Care.  I also have a question -- will economic and geopolitical superiority in the future also in large part be determined by which countries deal the most effectively with these types of health care issues?]

Submitted By: Bonnie Morse

Imagine that while walking in San Luis Obispo this morning you slip and break your leg. You go to the hospital and are told that, before the doctor will look at your leg, you must pay $200 for the X-ray, $100 for the cast, $50 for pain medication, and an additional $40 if you want to splurge for crutches. You only have $20 in your wallet. What do you do?

While many Americans will never face this type of situation, the answer is much different in China. A recent Wall Street Journal article described how China’s health care system is structured so that patients must pay for medical treatments before they receive them. With nearly two-thirds of Chinese lacking insurance, many people cannot afford to receive proper medical attention. Additionally, the privatization of hospitals has created an incentive to prescribe expensive medications and administer costly tests. For instance, doctors receive additional income for ordering CAT scans and laser surgery. Prescriptions in some cases have been shown to make up 60% of a hospital’s income.

A side effect of China’s health care structure is that maintaining steady revenues from patients is overshadowing the need for “preventive medicine.” Teaching better eating habits to prevent problems like hypertension reduces the amount of patients that will later need to be treated at a hospital. However, this also decreases a hospital’s income.

One of the most obvious topics this health care system relates to is ethics. In particular, what type of responsibility do hospitals, businesses, or countries have for providing adequate health care? While a doctor’s duty should be to treat patients, they cannot be entirely blamed for this situation. A system that makes hospitals earn a profit off of patients is bound to create a conflict of interest. But what can be done to change it? Should Chinese companies offer affordable health care insurance for employees? China acknowledges that the health care system is in trouble, but should hospitals become entirely funded by the government? Ultimately, answering these questions is critical for both the health of China’s people and the country as a whole.

[Professor Carr Addendum: I thought it was interesting that three students chose this article. A good article and good choice. I publish all three posts here, because you can compare and contrast which parts of the article they found interesting, how the article struck people differently, etc. See also the related earlier blog post Not All Is Well in China: Access to Health Care.  I also have a question -- will economic and geopolitical superiority in the future also in large part be determined by which countries deal the most effectively with these types of health care issues?]

* Thursday, January 18 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm, Room 114 — OCOB Finance Professor Cyrus Ramezani will discuss “Recent Developments in Chinese Financial Markets”

* Thursday, February 1 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm, Room 114 — OCOB Management Professor Colette Frayne will discuss “Managing People in the Global Environment: A Look at China”

* Thursday, February 22 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm, Room 114 - Cal Poly Architecture Professor Rob Pena, attorney Michael Jencks, CEO Neil Lahey of Deventec, Inc. Solar Energy, and Cal Poly OCOB Accounting Professor Kate Lancaster will discuss “Looking at China Through the Lens of Sustainability”

* Friday March 9 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, Room 201 — Henry Lane, CEO of Dioptics, a SLO company that sells sunglasses around the world with its suppliers are located in China, will discuss “Managing the Global Supply Chain”; and Ray Bowman, Logistics and Shipping Expert will speak about his field (note we will again try to visit the Port of Yantian and Logistics Center in Shenzhen)

Submitted By: Victoria Whelan

I thought this Wall Street Journal article was interesting since many of us are taking Marketing this quarter. It will be interesting to see if Dunkin’ Donuts can pull off pushing tea and donuts (flavored to China’s liking) instead of coffee and donuts that we think of when we hear their name. It might taint their brand image since they are eventually trying to revert back to coffee and donuts once they get market share. Starbuck’s is doing the complete opposite and pushing coffee during their large expansion plan in China (see Starbucks Pours It On In China).