It’s shocking to see how a socialist nation like China doesn’t provide the few services widely socialized in the West (i.e., education and medical care) and doesn’t avail itself of capitalist solutions either (e.g., insurance and loans). From Chinese Doctors Tell Patients To Pay Upfront, or No Treatment:
As soon as the money dries up, doctors warn, so will the drugs that could save the life of Cui Guangshun’s 7-year-old son, Dejie, in the leukemia unit of Beijing Children’s Hospital.Such are the rules of China’s pay-as-you-go health system: cash upfront, or no treatment.
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A year ago, Sam Lin, a prosperous factory owner, took his pregnant wife to a hospital in the southern boomtown of Shantou to give birth. As he recalls it, the couple were startled in the waiting room of the maternity wing by a commotion. A woman who had just delivered her baby was bleeding profusely and needed an emergency blood transfusion. Mr. Lin heard nurses screaming at the bleeding woman’s husband. “If you don’t have any money, we don’t operate,” one yelled, according to Mr. Lin. He says he rushed up to the man, counted out a stack of banknotes and thrust them on him. He never found out whether his charity saved the woman’s life.