The discovery was followed by an enormous expansion in all government services, massive construction projects, and a corresponding rise in the economic standard and the cost of living.

state-administered, means-tested program, eligibility criteria vary by state.

Most good hospitals (particularly tertiary hospitals) with better-qualified health professionals are in urban areas. Village doctors are often undertrained. To help bridge the urban–rural health care gap, the central government and local governments sponsor training for rural doctors in urban hospitals and require new medical graduates to work as residents in rural health facilities. Nevertheless, the China Health Statistical Yearbook shows that substantial disparities remain.

Income-related disparities in health care access were especially serious before the reform of the health insurance system more than 10 years ago, as most people did not have any coverage at all. Health coverage through publicly financed insurance is now nearly universal, and there are safety nets for the poor (see above). As a result, income-related disparities have been reduced substantially. However, there is no oversight agency to monitor or report on health disparities and there are no targeted programs to reduce disparities for specific groups.

The government has designated 15 cities as pilot sites for long-term care insurance, with the aim of developing a formal national policy framework by 2020. Local governments often provide some subsidies to long-term care facilities.

Mental health care is not integrated with primary care.

n 2018, there were approximately 12,000 public hospitals and 21,000 private hospitals (excluding township hospitals and community hospitals), of which about 20,500 were nonprofit and 12,600 were for-profit.1

Outpatient specialists are employed by and usually work in hospitals. Most specialists practice in only one hospital, although practicing in multiple settings is being introduced and encouraged in China. Specialists receive compensation in the form of a base salary plus activity-based payments, with fee schedules set by the local health authorities and Bureaus of Commodity Prices.

For individuals who are not able to afford individual premiums for publicly financed health insurance or cannot cover out-of-pocket spending, a medical financial assistance program, funded by local governments and social donations, serves as a safety net in both urban and rural areas.

Copayments for outpatient physician visits are often small (CNY 5–10, or USD 2–3), although physicians with professor titles have much higher copayments.

Maternity care is also covered by a separate insurance program; it is currently being merged into the basic medical insurance plan.

Preventive services, such as immunization and disease screening, are included in a separate public-health benefit package funded by the central and local governments; every resident is entitled to these without copayments or deductibles. Coverage is person-specific; there are no family or household benefit arrangements.

The few permanent foreign residents are entitled to the same coverage benefits as citizens. Undocumented immigrants and visitors are not covered by publicly financed health insurance.

Urban-Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance is financed through annual fixed premiums. Individual premium contributions are minimal, and government subsidies for insurance premiums make up the majority of insurer revenues. In regions where the economy is less developed, the central government provides a much larger share of subsidies than provincial and prefectural governments. In more-developed provinces, most subsidies are locally provided (mainly by provincial governments).

Workers’ nonemployed family members are not covered.

Twenty-eight percent was financed by the central and local governments, 44 percent was financed by publicly funded health insurance, private health insurance, or social health donations, and 28 percent was paid out-of-pocket.4

approximately 95 percent of the Chinese population was covered under one of the three medical insurances. Insurance coverage is not required in China.

Social networks are effective at increasing participation—by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.

Activism that challenges the status quo—that attacks deeply rooted problems—is not for the faint of heart.

“Western journalists who couldn’t reach—or didn’t bother reaching?—people on the ground in Iran simply scrolled through the English-language tweets post with tag #iranelection,” she wrote. “Through it all, no one seemed to wonder why people trying to coordinate protests in Iran would be writing in any language other than Farsi.”

They call their enemies colleagues.

If I had sneezed

this opportunity offered by the Exposition

without strikes and labour wars,

Norwood, a former dentist, became politically active in the early 1990s out of a sense of outrage that OSHA regulations designed to halt the spread of AIDS were forcing him to wear fresh rubber gloves for each new patient.

Workers who refuse to sign the IBP waiver not only risk getting no medical care from the company, but also risk being fired on the spot.