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Minister: Health system in poor state
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-08-07 08:41
Gao revealed government contributions to hospital running costs have dropped
from an average 30 percent in the 1970s and 1980s to 7.7 percent in 2000.
This has forced many public health institutions to overcharge patients to
turn a profit, he said.
"Because the government's contribution is too low, the cost of running the
hospitals have to be paid by the patients," he said in the report.
"The medical fees paid by the patients are not only covering the cost of the
services and medicines, but were also paying for the wages and subsidies of
medical staff, new medical apparatus and hospital facilities."
Between 2000 and 2003, the number of patients treated at state-run hospitals
dropped 4.7 percent but these hospitals' incomes jumped 69.9 percent.
The report said hospitals and doctors were being bribed by pharmaceutical
companies to prescribe expensive medicines, operations and medical checks for
patients.
This is particularly dangerous because many of China's poorer citizens, who
can barely afford the bills, simply leave illnesses untreated, which can lead to
outbreaks of diseases.
Citing an official national survey in 2003, the report said 48.9 percent of
people who need treatment do not go to a doctor and 29.6 percent who should stay
in a hospital do not because of the cost.
"Our country has a population of 1.3 billion -- 22 percent of the world
population -- but the medical expenditure is only two percent of the world's
health expenditure," Gao said.
Contagious diseases and malnutrition plague China's rural population while
AIDS is also a huge and growing problem.
According to the same survey, 44 percent of Chinese urban citizens and 79
percent of its rural residents have no health insurance.
The ministry is currently mulling a new reform plan to overhaul the public
health sector, but no details have been made public, state media have
reported.
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