The People's Republic of Health Care

During his first official visit to China last week, President Obama said that the U.S. and China are not altogether dissimilar. Obama then returned to a country duking it out over health care reform, a conundrum that China knows all too well.

China is the world’s largest Communist country with 1.4 billion people who get head colds, and risk heart disease and cancer. The Chinese government has a standing commitment to providing health care for its citizens, a pledge now strained by China’s economic boom. While millions of Chinese have a better standard of living than they did five years ago, quality of medical care can’t keep up, leaving millions in need.

In addition, Chinese doctors are treated and paid like public servants, leading to a dangerous shortage of physicians in a country that’s quickly evolving into a world superpower.

Steven Mufson is a member of the Washington Post Foreign Service and he wrote about China’s deteriorating health care system for The Washington Post, and joins us with mre.

The Washington Post: In China, too, a health-care system in disarray

(Photo by lanchongzi via Flickr/Creative Commons)