Ailing System Leaves Sick To Pay Up Or Die

Guardian Unlimited ^ | September 14, 2007 | By Jonathan Watts in Jinhua village

[JACKRUSSELL]

The richest man in one of the poorest villages in China is the "barefoot doctor" Hua Wanxiang, who sells cigarettes, beer and antibiotics.

Although he lives in Jinhua - a remote community deep in the hills of Guizhou province - Hua has made his money by moving with the times.

In the communist past, offering rudimentary treatment to the sick would have been enough for the village doctor to secure his status in Jinhua.

But in the capitalist present, money determines social rank. This helps to explain why the village doctor recently padlocked his old clinic shut and opened a shop next door selling groceries alongside medicine.

It was an easy move. The only medical equipment he owns is a stethoscope, some tweezers and a sterilising bowl. He can now sell tobacco while referring locals to hospital for lung diseases; flog crates of beer one day and painkillers the next......

[JACKRUSSELL]

Jinhua village, Guizhou province: Barefoot doctor Hua Wanxiang checks his stock of medicines. Although government healthcare spending doubled between 1998 and 2004, the funds have been disproportionately invested in the cities and on hi-tech equipment. According to one study, the rural share of medical expenditure dropped from 34.3% to 22.5% in the decade up to 2003, despite more than half of China’s 1.3bn population living in the countryside. (Photograph: Jonathan Watts/Guardian)

Guiyang city, Guizhou province: A woman extracts a client's tooth at her stand offering dentistry services on a pedestrian overpass in Guizhou's capital. Dental health is not a high priority to many low-income Chinese people, who are not covered by the medical insurance. (Photograph: Lu Di/EPA)

Hefei, Anhui province: A nurse attends to patients at an overcrowded hospital. Around one in ten of China's 1·3 billion people is thought to be a carrier of hepatitis B, while tuberculosis, syphilis and rabies - all under control 20 years ago - are sharply on the rise again. (Photograph: STR/AFP)

Beijing: A man carries a sign that reads 'clinic' as he is detained and taken to a police station after officials found an illegal surgery in a house while they were patrolling in the neighbourhood. (Photograph: EyePress/AP)

Hefei, Anhui province: Patients receive treatment at a local hospital. (Photograph: STR/AFP)

[JACKRUSSELL]

”Made in China” Ping.

(Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.)

[doc1019]

Hitlery future look.

[EagleUSA]

Hitlery future look.
::::::
You beat me to it — my thoughts exactly. Crime would abound, tax evasion would become more widespread, black markets....just take a hard look at Russia and China — those are the products of socialism and power-mad government.

[ontap]

Russia and China! Hell look at Medicare...