Makes you sick

The Economist on China's health care system

In the long run, what China needs most is a health-insurance system that works. This should include insurance for private treatment (now non-existent), giving patients a bigger choice of facilities and stimulating private investment in hospitals. It would also need to ensure that those who contribute little or nothing to the system still get some coverage. In other words, the government needs to spend a lot more, particularly in the countryside and among rural migrants to the cities.

...In poor areas, including much of the countryside, the government will need to remain the primary provider.

Achieving this will involve changing priorities. Prestige projects may have to be abandoned. And there will have to be a fairer allocation of resources to address the current imbalance by which cities currently enjoy 80% of health resources despite having only 35% of the population. And to make sure it all works, there will need to be an effective system of oversight which China now sorely lacks. The idea of good corporate governance is novel enough in China, but in health care it is non-existent. A sea change is needed in everything from hospital management to the way central and local governments spend their money. Even so, slowly and reluctantly as it may be, China is beginning to discover that market forces alone cannot produce good health care.

So this is really going to happen?