Although under Maoist China health care in rural areas was quite basic nevertheless it was recognised as a considerable achievement for a country as large and relatively poor as China was then. With the great leap forward into capitalism and a user pay system of health care and the poor with no health insurance rural health care in China is a disaster. At the same time 2 billion dollars a year is spent by the Chinese on cosmetic surgery. Health care is no longer based on need as it was in socialist China but on income.
A recent article in Asia Times traces the development of the new system.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KA16Ad04.html
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