Civil servants' exorbitant expenditure on medical care must be controlled and reformed, says an article of the Southern Metropolis Daily (excerpts below).

Work-related expenditure in the field of medical care has long been ignored as a possible form of corruption, a waste of both taxpayers' money and limited healthcare resources, until a recent report shed light on the issue. The report states that a retired provincial-level official's brief stay in hospital cost more than 3 million yuan ($477,000). Doctors revealed that spending on healthcare for senior officials is no less wasteful of money than their banquets.

The special wards for senior officials in some hospitals are comparable to luxury hotels. Some retired officials live in the wards for relaxation and recuperation, while common people have to wait in a long queue to register to see a doctor.

Average wage earners still find hospital visits very expense. Many families have become bankrupted because of the mounting medical bills of one sick family member.

Many Chinese people save money all their life in case they need to go to hospital for some treatment.

All the healthcare expenses of the civil servants are reimbursed by the government. They have free medical checks every year. The senior officials needn't worry about the difficulty of getting a hospital bed or registering to see a doctor. They have special hospitals and doctors exclusively for them. So they do not have the real-life experience of the difficulty and financial burden felt by common citizens in hospitals.

Civil servants' healthcare expenditure should now be supervised. In the long run, the central government must reform the unfair distribution of medical resources among different groups of people.

No person should be left behind, waiting for death at home, just because of the lack of money. The government should reflect on the reason why going to hospital is still so expensive after several rounds of medical care reforms in the past decade.