The Lungs and the Minds of the Chinese are Weaker Than Ever
Chinese politics has been centered around economic growth over the last three decades. It is common belief, among its leaders, that a growth rate of 8% a year is the minimum necessary to reclaim the Communist Party’s legitimacy and prevent upheavals. This mentality has led to the decades long neglect of public healthcare, limiting government’s ability to control epidemics and risk factors. Ultimately, this can turn into the greatest threat Chinese will have to face.
A healthcare worker treating a SARS patient in China in 2003.
The 2003 SARS crisis exposed for the first time the weaknesses of the Chinese healthcare system. In just 9 months over 8400 cases and 900 deaths were reported. After a period of hermetic closure, the Chinese government finally opened the doors to external help preventing a global disaster. The fact that 70% of the 164 countries with which China had diplomatic relations put restrictions on travel to and from China influenced that decision a lot as trade plunged and tourism plummeted.
Another lesson drawn from the 2003 episode is that the only way to get Chinese politicians do something is to show them that not doing it would compromise economic growth. In fact, after the SARS crisis, the government increased its health expenditure allowing for infrastructure improvements, brand new equipment and better trained staff. Although this might have improved the government’s ability to manage a crisis, China is still a long way from being able to ensure its citizens appropriate healthcare services.
In 2010 the government gave less than $16 to every person covered by the rural cooperative medical-care program, or just 8.6% of the average total healthcare expenditure per capita. 856 million rural inhabitants are covered by such a program.
The situation is particularly critical when it come to manage risk factors and rural areas. Reforms to control pollution and smoking, for example, have been sabotaged spectacularly by the country’s florishing corruption. As explained in a recent report by Yong Goghuan, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, anti-tobacco laws have been shut down because of interferences by representatives of the Chinese tobacco industry. Today, there are 300 million smokers in China (more than the entire US population) and 740 million are regularly exposed to passive smoking. Being smoke the principal risk factor for respiratory diseases such as asthma and BPCO while contributing in the development of diabete and vascular disease one can imagine the impact that this has in public health. A 2011 study by Peking University’s Center for Economic Research showing that the economic cost of smoking (around $37 bn) is far more than the fiscal income drawn from the tobacco industry (around $30 bn) will probably change government’s stance. In this case as well the health of Chinese citizens was not as good a reason to shut smoking as the economic advantage drawn by doing it.
Entrance of the Huilongguan hospital in Beijing.
An estimated 287000 people commit suicide in China every year. As for the prevalence of mental illnesses, according to a study by the Suicide and Prevention Center at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, it is calculated to be around 17.5%. This means that more than 227 million Chinese suffer from some kind of mental illness. If we consider that there are 1.5 psychiatrists every 100 000 people, one tenth the US rate, the social bias against the mentally ill and the lack of drugs for treatment the situations becomes really critical.
Aware that very few Chinese will be able to evade Beijing’s censorship department to read this article, we hope that those who censor, at least, push for more healthcare reforms in China. It would be good both for the People and for the party.
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