From the Readers

Follow US medical system?

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-27 07:56

Comment on "A different take on healthcare" (China Daily, July 9)

The author writes: "On the other hand, to guarantee quality medical service, the government should pay medicine and medical service providers strictly according to market rules."

But in the US, which has well-established market rules in the medical care system, about 50 million people can't afford healthcare. Many Americans even drive to the Canadian border towns to buy medicine from Canada's "socialist" system.

The writer is right to mention the drawback in the old system in China: healthcare was different between rural and urban areas. Chairman Mao Zedong once criticized the Health Ministry for focusing on urban areas: "Why don't you call yourselves the Ministry of Urban Health? Or better still, the Ministry of Urban Gentlemen's Health?" His distaste for this inequality prompted the "barefoot doctor" movement, in which rural folks got, at least, basic healthcare based on preventive measures.

Nevertheless, as China develops rapidly, rural people deserve more than just basic healthcare. So the writer is right in this aspect.

The only flaw here is that marketization may lead China to fall into an American-like abyss, and nothing could be worse for a developing country with a huge population like China.

Larrydu, on China Daily Website

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(China Daily 07/27/2010 page9)