Realizing dream of healthcare

The fact that the United States and China unfolded their gigantic national healthcare reforms almost simultaneously is reflective of the daunting health policy challenges that most countries' governments are grappling with. Skyrocketing healthcare costs best describe the thorny problems testing policymakers' wisdom and determination.

While Obamacare (the healthcare system propounded by US President Barack Obama) has barely survived US Congress' obstruction and remains controversial, its Chinese counterpart has been running for five years at a considerably smooth pace.

China had good reason to feel proud for having an internationally revered healthcare system before the 1980s. The system, however, experienced astonishingly rapid deterioration in the course of China's stunning economic rise. Dwindling government funding to public hospitals and rapid commoditization of healthcare prompted hospitals and doctors to pursue profits, something they had to count on for survival and income. Compounded by the shrunk insurance coverage in the 1990s, healthcare became increasingly unaffordable to most Chinese citizens. Costly medical bills impoverished many lower-income families. In a global ranking of healthcare systems by the World Health Organization, China's system was considered among the least equitable, which was shocking for a socialist country.