They have universal public option for insurance to cover the bases. People who can afford it also get supplementary private insurance. This is more or less same as Australia or Germany. The only difference is that being a developing country with large population the basic public option is not as good.
To my knowledge it is a bit fragmented. Like there are different tiers of public option for rural vs. urban people, and employers still obligated to provide insurance to their workers (also with different tiers), and a lot of people do out of pocket supplementary insurance. The rural vs. urban divide creates weird problem like some of my colleagues from China said if city people went hiking in rural areas, roll their ankle and had to be helicoptered out, they are out of coverage because they live in cities. But more or less the whole population have some base of insurance (e.g., universal coverage), and emergency services are covered, so people never got bankrupt from ambulance trip. It is just that for very expensive medical treatment, like cancer treatment or some specialist visits, MRI, etc. it is not completely free.
What is the healthcare in China like? It may not be true universal healthcare, but surely it’s nothing like the “die of poverty from crippling medical debt before the terminal cancer kills you” style of US healthcare?
It’s (relatively) cheap as shit, very efficient, but there’s zero bedside manner.
I have heard of poor people struggling to fund more serious healthcare treatments. I remember a friend said their family had to resort to crowdfunding for a relative’s cancer treatment.
Also anecdotal but I’ve heard there’s a tendency to overmedicate or recommend unnecessary treatments because it makes the hospitals or doctors more money.
Whenever I hear about peopele crowdfunding cancer I am suspicious. Not of them, they are scared and dying. I have my doubts of the providers. Like, there was a famous case of a clinic here in America that was taking cancer patients that were deemed terminal and charging exorbitant prices for agressive treatments. Then as could be predicted that did not reverse terminal cancer. So they were effectively knowingly scamming the dying out od their money
TCM is clinically integrated into hospitals as part of (mostly) preventative medicine and treatment, though. I was prescribed a number of herbal medicines when I went in for 1) a twisted ankle 2) GI problems and 3) heatstroke. I’m a foreigner and this was in T1 cities.
Yeah I’ve had the same experience. Alongside real medicine, for minor issues, I don’t really have a problem with it. If nothing else it’s an innocent placebo.
It’s just in rare cases where people over rely on it that I think it’s dangerous. You hear stories like people attempting to cure their cancer with exclusively TCM, but these cases thankfully don’t seem too common.
Yep, fair enough. I imagine if either of us had been really ill the treatment would be similar to what we’d receive in a western hospital, i.e. heavy analgesics. Fortunately haven’t had to see that side of a Chinese hospital.
Anecdotally, I have also seen a TCM doctor since returning from China since I was curious, and it was absolute quackery afaic. Outside of the hospital system it’s an unregulated untested crapshoot.
I liked the accupuncture like, I think that did help (at the very basic level lying down in a dark room listening to soothing music would do on its own) but the 配方 pellets were useless at best.
TCM is way more than a weaponized placebo. Obviously some of it is scientifically bunk, but a great deal of it represents the practical indigenous knowledge of Chinese people developed over millennia of living in their environment and learning how to use it to better themselves.
No universal healthcare in China I’m afraid. The street food is significantly cheaper than 5 dollars though. Try between 1 and 2 dollars
They have universal public option for insurance to cover the bases. People who can afford it also get supplementary private insurance. This is more or less same as Australia or Germany. The only difference is that being a developing country with large population the basic public option is not as good.
Ah right. Is that opt in or is it something you get with your social security/national insurance card equivalent
To my knowledge it is a bit fragmented. Like there are different tiers of public option for rural vs. urban people, and employers still obligated to provide insurance to their workers (also with different tiers), and a lot of people do out of pocket supplementary insurance. The rural vs. urban divide creates weird problem like some of my colleagues from China said if city people went hiking in rural areas, roll their ankle and had to be helicoptered out, they are out of coverage because they live in cities. But more or less the whole population have some base of insurance (e.g., universal coverage), and emergency services are covered, so people never got bankrupt from ambulance trip. It is just that for very expensive medical treatment, like cancer treatment or some specialist visits, MRI, etc. it is not completely free.
What is the healthcare in China like? It may not be true universal healthcare, but surely it’s nothing like the “die of poverty from crippling medical debt before the terminal cancer kills you” style of US healthcare?
It’s (relatively) cheap as shit, very efficient, but there’s zero bedside manner.
I have heard of poor people struggling to fund more serious healthcare treatments. I remember a friend said their family had to resort to crowdfunding for a relative’s cancer treatment.
Also anecdotal but I’ve heard there’s a tendency to overmedicate or recommend unnecessary treatments because it makes the hospitals or doctors more money.
Whenever I hear about peopele crowdfunding cancer I am suspicious. Not of them, they are scared and dying. I have my doubts of the providers. Like, there was a famous case of a clinic here in America that was taking cancer patients that were deemed terminal and charging exorbitant prices for agressive treatments. Then as could be predicted that did not reverse terminal cancer. So they were effectively knowingly scamming the dying out od their money
I think the Chinese equivalent is TCM doctors promising miracle cures and scamming people out of their money.
TCM is clinically integrated into hospitals as part of (mostly) preventative medicine and treatment, though. I was prescribed a number of herbal medicines when I went in for 1) a twisted ankle 2) GI problems and 3) heatstroke. I’m a foreigner and this was in T1 cities.
Yeah I’ve had the same experience. Alongside real medicine, for minor issues, I don’t really have a problem with it. If nothing else it’s an innocent placebo.
It’s just in rare cases where people over rely on it that I think it’s dangerous. You hear stories like people attempting to cure their cancer with exclusively TCM, but these cases thankfully don’t seem too common.
Yep, fair enough. I imagine if either of us had been really ill the treatment would be similar to what we’d receive in a western hospital, i.e. heavy analgesics. Fortunately haven’t had to see that side of a Chinese hospital.
Anecdotally, I have also seen a TCM doctor since returning from China since I was curious, and it was absolute quackery afaic. Outside of the hospital system it’s an unregulated untested crapshoot.
I liked the accupuncture like, I think that did help (at the very basic level lying down in a dark room listening to soothing music would do on its own) but the 配方 pellets were useless at best.
It’s chill when it is a weaponized placebo but people tend to go over board with it.
TCM is way more than a weaponized placebo. Obviously some of it is scientifically bunk, but a great deal of it represents the practical indigenous knowledge of Chinese people developed over millennia of living in their environment and learning how to use it to better themselves.
It’s way closer than it should be, considering that it used to be universal.
I’m not really sure. But I know it’s orders of magnitude cheaper than the US system. You won’t go bankrupt from an ambulance ride