As the United States haltingly moves to implement the Affordable Care Act, China claims it has already achieved universal rural health care, with more than 800 million rural residents enrolled in a medical plan. Yet according to recent reports the system still suffers from problems of quality and accessibility. The low salaries of medical professionals and insufficient funding of public hospitals create opportunities for pharmaceutical companies to exchange money for market access, much as they do in the United States. The following infographic, developed by Sohu Finance, traces this corruption to its source. Tea Leaf Nation’s Liz Carter translates from the original Chinese.
References
“2012 Medical School Graduates Have Lowest Average Compensation, Medicine No Longer Ideal Profession,” China Youth Daily
“2012 Public Report on Statistics on Developments in China’s Health and Family Planning (Full Text)”
Chai Huiqun, “‘Supporting Doctors with Medicine’ is a Misnomer,” Caijing
“Chinese Doctors’ Salaries the Worst in the World,” Jiaren
“Industry Insiders Reveal Unwritten Rules: Why does a 20 RMB intravenous antibiotic sell for 115 RMB?” China Business News
“Pharmaceuticals with a Factory Price of 2 RMB Retail for 12 RMB: Price Markups on Pharmaceuticals and Sources of Hospital Profits,” Southern Weekly
“Supporting Doctors with Medicine is Killing Medicine with Medicine,” People’s Daily
“The Distribution Process Has Become the Greatest Black Hole for Sudden Profits from Pharmaceutical Sales,” Xinhua Baoye