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?]