Less than a month after coming to the wealthy Chinese city of Hangzhou, a construction worker named Li Fuxing had to incur hospital expenses equivalent to six-months wages on account of a beam that came falling down that resulted in smashing his knee.
Dressed in stripped pajamas accompanied with a cast, the aforesaid individual is another guinea-pig pertaining to an experimentation being conducted on availability of affordable healthcare costs for 1.4 billion people across China. It is expected to cost an estimated $124 billion over the three years to 2011 to Chinese exchequer.
With the debate as to how the government can revamp health insurance cover for its citizens continuing in USA, China is seeking to tackle this ticklish issue by simply providing a token cover for its citizens and revamp the systems reliance on peddling drugs for earning revenue.
Drew Thomson, a researcher on China's health system based at the Nixon Center in Washington, USA draws a demarcating difference between the healthcare standards in USA and China. Based on his observations, US healthcare reforms are trying to expand coverage. On the other hand, in China, necessary measures are being taken that its citizens have access to basic healthcare.
In China, much emphasis is laid on the word basic that is targeted specially at the Healthcare sector.
Li Fuxing has started accumulating his daily bills from the hospital in Hangzhou, a lakeside city near Shanghai that attracts migrants across China.