Posted By Damjan DeNoble
As a follow up to the post discussing the barriers to entry for firms wishing to become health insurance gatekeepers, direct billing providers, and/or TPAs in the Chinese market, to an excellent article by , a 14 year veteran of the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Hamilton hits the nail on the head when he says;
What all these deals have in common is a hope of capturing a share of rising “consumer” spending among middle- and upper-class Asians. Exactly how this will work in practice remains unclear, particularly given the heavy regulation of healthcare and potential cultural barriers in China and elsewhere in Asia.
In essence, he’s saying what Asia Healthcare Blog has been saying in various ways since our first few posts – everyone sees the money, but no one knows how to get there. And, it seems, a lot of these players don’t care or don’t realise that entering the Chinese health care “market” is a fundamentally different process than the one required to enter the market in the US. At best, this kind of uncritical approach can be described as opportunism and, again, Mr. Hilton correctly deduces that ” this [investment strategy] seems likely to end in tears for many of the players.”
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