I thought China was supposed to be socialist?!
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Yes. And not 100% of procedures are covered by the nationalized healthcare. These are not incongruent things.
Contrast that to America where not 100% of procedures are covered by personal healthcare, and less if your healthcare coverage is "bad".
China has a pretty abismal social safety net. They economy has a lot more central organization than most countries (whose economies are more free market). The social safety net systems in Europe are much stronger than in China, even though they have less centrally planned economies overall.
As with everything, it's hard to fit things into neat groups and the more you analyze something the more nuance there is.
Why exactly? What reasons?
I can only speculate, but I assume it has to do with the government structure. China's leadership is much more insulated (electorally) from the population than the European leadership. Said another way, European leadership is more accountable to their constituents and social safety nets are popular.
Chinese leadership are more accountable to the party which is just a subset of the population, not the population at large. I assume those in the party are on average better off and have less need for a social safety net, so they are less likely to demand that from the leadership. This is pure speculation though.
Appreciate the perspective
Like I said, I'm only guessing. I've never taken a political science class or studied this kind of stuff. It's the best reasoning I can come up with, bust just because it seems reasonable doesn't make it true.
In practice, China is more capitalist (at citizen level) than many European countries.
So what's their healthcare situation? Does government provide it? or is it only provided through employment like USA does it (implying we're not worthy of healthcare unless we work a cushy job),? or do they pay for healthcare out of pocket?
I may have gotten some information incorrect, but I believe that the Chinese welfare system is very complex and even sad to think about. Citizens are only entitled to free healthcare in their home province. Outside of that they are not entitled. It's called the hukou system. Despite the uplifting of millions of Chinese from poverty, the wealth and access to resources is strange in such a way.
I think it's pronounced the "fuk-you" system.
Best comment I've read!
So ... if you were very sick, why wouldn't you go back to your home province to get that healthcare?
Stupid system, sure, but it seems like a much more reasonable solution than hoping your child wins a lot of money in sports.
Their home province may be rural and not have hospitals equipped to treat certain diseases? China is a big country and not all of it is well developed.
This is the correct answer in a lot of cases and even if their hukou is in a modern place like Shanghai, the best hospitals and latest medical treatments are often not part of the basic medical coverage. Long lines and long waits happen for many services. A two tier system of public and private care exists with the rich able to pay for private doctor, private rooms, and advanced care. I lived in Shanghai for 11 years. Managed to have a heart attack there and got great emergency service at a fraction of the cost in the USA. After care was long lines and long waits at the local hospital so I went to the international clinic for that.
A lot of Chinese are from the more rural interior and travel to the more prosperous cities, which are closer to the coast, to work. Traveling to their home province to get treatment is more arduous than getting sick itself.
Would it also be fair to assume a rural province might not have the specialist you need?
As somebody mentioned already, you're right, most specialists live urban areas.
That's why the "Democratic" part of Social democracy is so critical.
Look up the term State Capitalism. That is China.
Socialist in name only.
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That kid is 14!?
She is 18 now, but yeah, the photo is from when she won at 14.
Quan Hongchan (Chinese: 全红婵; pinyin: Quán Hóngchán;[2] born 28 March 2007) is a Chinese diver, national champion, and Olympic champion.[3] At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the individual 10 metre platform event.[4] At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Quan won the gold medal in the individual 10 metre platform event and, alongside teammate Chen Yuxi, also won gold in the 10 metre synchronized platform.
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
Despite this, public health insurance generally only covers about half of medical costs, with the proportion lower for serious or chronic illnesses.
And according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quan_Hongchan
Her mother was hit by a car on the way to work in 2017 and suffered a serious injury.
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 cost a Chinese citizen $30. My Chinese friends tell me their medical costs because they know it fascinates me.
it seems like Chinese people that aren’t rich can still be financially ruined by medical situations
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.
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.
Setting and casting a leg for $60 may cost a Chinese citizen $30.
But ... that's still going to really suck if you only have $10...
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Or she's from a poor province and the kind of treatment she needs is not easily available there
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