China To Enact Universal healthcare By 2010 (and we thought our system sucked)

[BayCityProgressive]

Hu Jintao has made building a "harmonious Socialist Society" his top goal with the main focus on the environment, taxing the rich more and cutting taxes on farmers..the agriculture tax has been eliminated, and setting up a new healthcare system. The shitty system they have now sounds like Bush's dream! Hopefully for the sake of thes epeople this new system is better

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2006-10/17/content_709403.htm

Also interesting: China to boost union and labor laws- Foreign Business Irrate
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/16/content_709131.htm

I think it is really important to watch what is going on in places like China, the EU, and India...their labor laws and environmental standards will have a big impact on us in the future, as will their consumption. We will soon be living in a multi-polar world so we need to root for any progressive change in these influential parts of the world.

[robinlynne]

1. an interesting note from that article:

20 years ago, urban residents enjoyed State-funded hospital services, and rural people had access to subsidized clinics run by "barefoot doctors," who were mainly middle school graduates trained in first aid. And the chinese life expectancy doubled in 20 years with socialized medicine! "barefoot doctors' who were just people trained in first aid... I have often thought that government sponsored clinics full of nurses could take care of most of our health needs. easily, and inexpensively.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. the new system doesn't sound too bad

sound sbetter than what they have now. for every $10 they contribute the government will contribute $40 and they have set up a bunch of co-op run hospitals.I hope that we can all come up with some type of universal system. They rank an abysmal 188 out of 191 right now in healthcare..I wonder where we are at? I believe Cuba is pretty high on the list..

[Xithras]

3. The problem with that is lawyers.

You would need legal protections for nurses and the clinics in that situation to prevent them from being sued. Right now, nurses generally do not practice medicine. They perform examinations at the request of doctors, administer medications at the request of doctors, and participate in medical surgeries and other activities to aid doctors. The common thread is that the DOCTOR makes the medical decisions, and the nurse implements them.

To have any sort of nurses-only clinic, you'd have to show that nurses not only have the training to administer assistance, but also to diagnose and prescribe the appropriate treatments for a potentially unknown ailment. The first time someone died because a nurse instructed someone with a "minor headache" to take an asprin for their otherwise operable brain tumor, you'd have lawyers literally fighting over the case. It would be trivial to prove that the nurse did not have the appropriate medical training to diagnose the patient, and that he died directly due to her inexperience.

This is why practicing medicine without a license is illegal.

[robinlynne]

4. gotcha.