this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Hi, that's not at all epresentative of chinese healthcare.
They have nationalized health care and most conditions, from sprained ankles through childbirth up to cancer, are covered at extremely low costs to Chinese citizens, so this might be an outlier where she has something extremely severe or so rare that the treatment is unavailable within China.
A likely scenario is that they are choosing a treatment that national healthcare doesn't offer but is available for purchase outside of the health care system.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_China
And according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quan_Hongchan
While it sounds better than the US by leaps and bounds, it seems like Chinese people that aren't rich can still be financially ruined by medical situations that the rich get to buy their way out of.
These healthcare costs are not something those familiar with private healthcare may be familiar with, a prescription for $4 costs a Chinese citizen up to $2. Setting and casting a leg for $60 may cast a Chinese citizen $30. My Chinese friends tell me their medical costs because they know it fascinates me.
Fortunately not for Chinese citizens, most poor and middle class Chinese can afford medical care. 95% of China is covered for nearly all medical conditions, and those costs are very reasonable, even taking into account the drastically lower salaries and cost of living there. Several government policies like medical tourism taxes and family pay plans are in place specifically to ensure costs are affordable for as much of the gen pop as possible.
But ... that's still going to really suck if you only have $10...
$10 is great if they need wisdom teeth pulled. Costs about 80 cents each, so they'd still have almost $7 left after pulling all four.
"Sorry, we can't fix your broken leg, since you can't afford it. Want some teeth pulled out, though? You could afford that!"
In China it's more like "Ten dollars gets you a set leg, four wisdom teeth and we'll throw in the pain pills".
Nationalized health care is where it's at.
Is $0 not an option?
It's not like you really need to incentivize people not to seek out unneeded healthcare. People (generally) don't go to the doctor just for fun.
Yes, other than the $0 teeth extraction and medications mentioned above, Chinese patients often have other $0 medical expenses like doctor visits and consults.
I used to wonder why my Chinese friends went to the hospital so often, it seemed their trip was "for fun" sometimes. Then I found out that their copay is usually free or under a dollar, and my perspective changed.
Damn. China has more expensive healthcare than Japan. I didn't expect that.
That sounds incorrect. Where did you hear that?
Having experienced both, healthcare in China has always been wayyy cheaper than Japan.
I live in Japan. You pay 30% of the cost here compared to 50%.
Often in China, a patient pays 0%(teeth extraction as mentioned above, for example), but if we imagined the 50% copay was a hard rule, the important component is cost basis, 30% of what vs. 50% of what.
30% of $200 vs. 50% of $40 for an identical pair of glasses means someone in japan paying 30% is paying $66 white someone in China paying 50% is paying $20, less than a third of the price for the same treatment.
The uninsured cost basis is extremely low in China.
Similarly many procedures for vulnerable people or those with lower incomes are completely covered in Japan.
I get what you're saying regarding the proportion compared to the total cost. But Japan's minimum wage is over three times that of Shanghai's and a higher payment proportion disproportionally impacts Chinese people with lower incomes.
As the Chinese healthcare cost basis is so low and government programs specifically focus on providing and facilitating care for low-income individuals, lower-income Chinese populations don't have the healthcare inaccessibility issue that you often see in other countries.
Given the prices, policies, and disparate income populations receiving healthcare i'm familiar with there and hete, it's going to be difficult convincing me healthcare is more expensive or less accessible in China than Japan since the information online and especially on the ground doesn't agree.
Or she's from a poor province and the kind of treatment she needs is not easily available there
With their transportation infrastructure and national health coverage, simple lack of access seems unlikely. How do you mean?
If I'm correct, you can't access health services for other provinces. So, if you come from a poor province but work and live in a rich one, if you want to use the public healthcare you need to go back to were you born.
Oh, that's definitely incorrect, or at least I've never encountered that. I knew and know people all over China for over a decade who access the national healthcare system from outside of their home provinces.
Actually, I'm talking to a guy right now who's been living outside of his home province for years; and his family's been going to local hospitals the whole time.
What about the Hukou system? Unless they changed that and I'm unaware.
The hukou system is still in place. I'm unaware of any healthcare restrictions according to your hukou, what are you referring to?
Looks like it's changing, at least by reports on this 2025-12 news article about lifting restrictions 9n hukou medical insurance enrollment
https://www.caixinglobal.com/2025-12-03/china-provinces-scrap-hukou-limits-for-medical-insurance-to-boost-mobility-102389391.html
But as far as I'm understanding, is still a thing, that migrants from rular to urban province get unequal access to Healthcare.
Thanks, good article! In practice their hukou hasn't stopped anyone I know from accessing national healthcare across provincial borders the last 15 years, but if any of my friends had had to return home for care, it's not much of an issue in China.
They have such advanced transportation and good healthcare is available in all provinces. It isn't like disparate Alabama/California levels across provincial levels of healthcare, more like all pretty decent healthcare at affordable prices for everyone.
Healthcare is still tied to hukou.
Can you expand on that? I've never experienced or heard of healthcare access being restricted by the hukou.