The Ministry of Health revealed on Sunday that nearly 40 percent
of the country's patients cannot afford medical treatment because
of high costs.
Expensive medical treatment has been one of the targets of
criticism in the country in recent years. Many people simply give
up medical treatment, sometimes with fatal consequences.
The numbers are shocking: 36 and 39 percent of patients in urban
and rural areas respectively, did not visit a doctor because of
economic difficulties last year.
Medical costs climb at a rate much higher than income. From 1993 to
2003, the cost of medical treatment increased by 14 percent
annually when the price hike factor was deducted. The increase in
residents' income was left in its wake.
When the average income of the country's rural residents was only
2,622 yuan (US$315) last year, average in-patient hospital costs
for a farmer ran as high as 2,236 yuan (US$270). It means those
average households who just begin to get ahead financially are
rapidly dragged back into dire poverty when one of its family
members falls seriously ill.
At present, medical care plans differ greatly: only government
employees and State enterprise employees get a certain portion of
government medical care subsidies. Others get medical insurance
policies from their employers while others buy medical insurance
themselves. In most cases, however, it is the rural poor who suffer
most as they have to fend for themselves.
The fact that nearly 40 percent of the sick did not go to see a
doctor because of financial difficulties should sound a loud alarm
bell that policy makers must heed. It is time to work out a medical
care plan which is accessible, if not free, for all the residents
in the country. Last year's SARS crisis, or severe acute
respiratory syndromes crisis, had caused the government to reflect
on its public health and medical treatment system. The country has
speeded up its medical insurance reform and planned to implement a
new cooperative medical care system for all its rural population by
2010.
This sounds good for our rural residents - if their sick can wait
six years.
(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2004)