The China healthcare theme these days is change. China’s population is becoming more affluent and healthcare providers are having a hard time keeping up. For government officials and public health planners this presents a problem. For businesses this presents an opportunity. Stuck in the middle are consumers who have to both hustle to find adequate care and to watch their backs so as not to be taken for a ride by the most opportunistic healthcare providers. For some the solution is to simply leave the country.
– CNN. It’s true and the trends will only continue.
– Asia Times by our very own Benjamin A Shobert. China’s 12th 5 year plan is more aware of rising numbers of uninsured and soaring healthcare costs, but that awareness may not translate into effective reforms.
– Japan Times Online. “Even as the number of hospital beds fell 3.8 percent in Japan between 2005 and 2010, that figure grew 42.8 percent in China, data from the two countries show.”
- China Daily. New era and new privacy challenges await as Chinese doctors take to microblogging.
– USA Today. Go to the mental hospital and endure proddings for 5 months or get thrown in with a violent and institutionalized prison population – your choice.
– Slate. We’ve written about these plenty of times before. Just remember, Cesarean sections are a problem in the US, as well. OBGYN resident physicians at Brigham and Women’s hospital, an affiliate of Harvard, graduate having done two-thirds of their deliveries by c-section.
– Monsterandcritics.com. Taiwan opens up to medical tourism for China, just in time to accomodate the Year of the Dragon baby boom.
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