China is struggling to reform a sclerotic public health system afflicted by spiralling costs, over-prescription of drugs, serious shortages of competent well-trained professionals and rampant corruption, writes Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing.
Because the country does not have a functioning primary care network, 95 per cent of healthcare is provided by hospitals, leading to enormous waste and overcrowding.
The Chinese government actively studies healthcare systems around the world but, rather than opt for a British model of taxpayer-funded universal care, Beijing has chosen so far to follow an insurance-based system.