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"The most regretful thing to me was a pregnant woman from Huanggang. She was in very serious condition. Nearly 200,000 yuan (S$39,505) was spent after more than

by loceng 7y ago

"The most regretful thing to me was a pregnant woman from Huanggang. She was in very serious condition. Nearly 200,000 yuan (S$39,505) was spent after more than a week in the ICU. She was from the countryside, and the money for hospitalisation was borrowed from her relatives and friends. Her condition was improving after the use of Ecmo, and she was likely to survive. But her husband decided to give up. He cried for his decision. I wept too because I felt there was hope for her to be saved. The woman died after we gave up. And exactly the next day, the government announced a new policy that offers free treatment for all coronavirus-infected patients. I feel so sorry for that pregnant woman." I had the unchecked belief that China claiming to be a communist country would be covering medical costs. Above reminded me of this: "'He cannot speak or look after himself': A 17-year-old with cerebral palsy died after being left alone for 6 days while Chinese authorities quarantined his father over coronavirus fears" - https://www.businessinsider.com/teenager-cerebral-palsy-dies-father-quarantined-suspected-coronavirus-china-2020-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/teenager-cerebral-palsy-dies... Edit: I really can't understand why anyone would downvote this comment - the downvotes are making me laugh.

msie 7y ago
"The boy's aunt told Damihexiaomi that she fed Cheng three times and changed his clothes twice during the six days that he was alone. Her own poor health prevented her from doing more. When she stopped by to take care of Cheng on Tuesday, his condition was already on the decline, the Post reported. "
malandrew 7y ago
The medical system there is far more similar to the US system than the European system. It fails some of its citizens the same way the US system fails some of its citizens. Yet it is also similar to the US system is that it is fostering more medical innovation than socialized systems as well. Basically it is similar in both good and bad ways. China has made more gains in medical R&D than pretty much any other country besides the US and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it allows firms to profit like the US does. It's the second biggest drug market after the United States and I believe it's also the second biggest market for clinical trials after the US.
- redis_mlc 7y ago
  Correct. Generally in China you buy your way into a hospital bed if it's busy. And "Big Sickness" (the Chinese term for cancer and heart surgery) ruins family finances, similar to the USA.
  - refurb 7y ago
    Jeeze dude. There are millions of Americans who weather cancer and heart surgery just fine without ruining their finances.
    - baq 7y ago
      By putting whatever they’ve got left in an offshore trust and declaring bankruptcy?
      - refurb 7y ago
        No, by hitting their out of pocket max and having insurance pay the rest. By your same logic, everyone who has a baby in the US must be ruined financially as well?
    - mensetmanusman 7y ago
      70 y.o: $2k social security check, $2k insurance costs, no savings (This is my dad’s case...)
- loceng 7y ago
  I'm curious what the exact costs (financial and otherwise) are for these gains in medical R&D. Canada's system likewise has pros and cons to it, and I believe once democracy and freedom is stabilized via adequate distribution of resources sharing the technological gains of this century, then society must first focus on analyzing, conversing about, our health systems in depth. The conversation for too long has been primarily held, lead, by industrial complexes and specialized professionals in funnels that are more indoctrinated, non-interdisciplinary, than is healthy.
vkou 7y ago
> I had the unchecked belief that China claiming to be a communist country would be covering medical costs. China is communist in name only, and has been for a very long time.
- joecai 7y ago
  The official claim is that China is a socialist country with Chinese characteristics. It's not really true but that's the official claim. And yes, the Chinese government started to cover medical costs for coronavirus-infected patients a few days ago, which was also mentioned in the interview. I think the real problem is that with some many patients, there is simply not enough resource. I can only hope that things will get better soon.
paganel 7y ago
> And exactly the next day, the government announced a new policy that offers free treatment for all coronavirus-infected patients. According to some Twitter videos I saw from Wuhan that is not actually the case, as in supposedly the local hospitals still ask people for money. There are also cases like this one [1] of people not being let in even though their relatives have paid some money. This latter link might also be interesting for the HN crowd as the lady from the video can be heard shouting at a hospital security guard that het older mother wasn't able to pay the money through any phone apps (supposedly because of her age and her not knowing to use this modern stuff), which made me think again about how eliminating cash and person-to-person transactions is really detrimental for large swaths of the population (in this case older and sick people). [1] https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1224959223915827200 https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1224959223915827200
syshum 7y ago
>>I had the unchecked belief that China claiming to be a communist country would be covering medical costs. This is the problem with socialist, they believe the government is always the good guy, and entrust it to provide for everyone. We capitalist know that government in all cases the worst solution to any problem
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- tsimionescu 7y ago
  Yes, that's why capitalists drive on private roads only, and go to private courts when they get in trouble with private police forces. They also honk to honor their private armies and thank them for their service. The private fire service is of course a pillar of most capitalist communities as well.
  - mullingitover 7y ago
    ...And we're writing about this on an internet that was developed by privately funded defense researchers and private universities. You can use this internet to get driving directions via privately funded geolocation satellites.
    - tsimionescu 7y ago
      No, the internet originally was funded almost exclusively by public money (US military and CERN being some of the biggest contributors), and there is basically no such thing as "privately funded defense researchers" - almost by definition, defense research is funded by public money, or at least by private investors looking to get their money back by selling to the state. Universities also tend to do research funded by outside grants, which in the early days of computer technology were, again, almost exclusively public US military budgets. GPS is a public utility, as are GLONASS and Galileo, so I'm not even sure what "privately funded geolocation satellites" you are talking about. Regardless, your claim was a universal (the state is worse at providing ALL services) so showing some services which the state is much better at providing is enough to prove you were wrong.
gwbas1c 7y ago
> I had the unchecked belief that China claiming to be a communist country would be covering medical costs. Communism and socialism are two different things. Communist states like China are very different than socialist states like in Europe that have free health care. Why confuse the two?
dang 7y ago
Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines? Going on about downvotes is explicitly against them, and guarantees further downvotes. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by loceng 7y ago

msie 7y ago

"The boy's aunt told Damihexiaomi that she fed Cheng three times and changed his clothes twice during the six days that he was alone. Her own poor health prevented her from doing more. When she stopped by to take care of Cheng on Tuesday, his condition was already on the decline, the Post reported. "

malandrew 7y ago

The medical system there is far more similar to the US system than the European system. It fails some of its citizens the same way the US system fails some of its citizens. Yet it is also similar to the US system is that it is fostering more medical innovation than socialized systems as well. Basically it is similar in both good and bad ways. China has made more gains in medical R&D than pretty much any other country besides the US and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it allows firms to profit like the US does. It's the second biggest drug market after the United States and I believe it's also the second biggest market for clinical trials after the US.

redis_mlc 7y ago
Correct. Generally in China you buy your way into a hospital bed if it's busy. And "Big Sickness" (the Chinese term for cancer and heart surgery) ruins family finances, similar to the USA.
- refurb 7y ago
  Jeeze dude. There are millions of Americans who weather cancer and heart surgery just fine without ruining their finances.
  - baq 7y ago
    By putting whatever they’ve got left in an offshore trust and declaring bankruptcy?
    - refurb 7y ago
      No, by hitting their out of pocket max and having insurance pay the rest. By your same logic, everyone who has a baby in the US must be ruined financially as well?
  - mensetmanusman 7y ago
    70 y.o: $2k social security check, $2k insurance costs, no savings (This is my dad’s case...)
loceng 7y ago
I'm curious what the exact costs (financial and otherwise) are for these gains in medical R&D. Canada's system likewise has pros and cons to it, and I believe once democracy and freedom is stabilized via adequate distribution of resources sharing the technological gains of this century, then society must first focus on analyzing, conversing about, our health systems in depth. The conversation for too long has been primarily held, lead, by industrial complexes and specialized professionals in funnels that are more indoctrinated, non-interdisciplinary, than is healthy.

vkou 7y ago

> I had the unchecked belief that China claiming to be a communist country would be covering medical costs. China is communist in name only, and has been for a very long time.

joecai 7y ago
The official claim is that China is a socialist country with Chinese characteristics. It's not really true but that's the official claim. And yes, the Chinese government started to cover medical costs for coronavirus-infected patients a few days ago, which was also mentioned in the interview. I think the real problem is that with some many patients, there is simply not enough resource. I can only hope that things will get better soon.

paganel 7y ago

> And exactly the next day, the government announced a new policy that offers free treatment for all coronavirus-infected patients. According to some Twitter videos I saw from Wuhan that is not actually the case, as in supposedly the local hospitals still ask people for money. There are also cases like this one [1] of people not being let in even though their relatives have paid some money. This latter link might also be interesting for the HN crowd as the lady from the video can be heard shouting at a hospital security guard that het older mother wasn't able to pay the money through any phone apps (supposedly because of her age and her not knowing to use this modern stuff), which made me think again about how eliminating cash and person-to-person transactions is really detrimental for large swaths of the population (in this case older and sick people). [1] https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1224959223915827200 https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1224959223915827200

syshum 7y ago

>>I had the unchecked belief that China claiming to be a communist country would be covering medical costs. This is the problem with socialist, they believe the government is always the good guy, and entrust it to provide for everyone. We capitalist know that government in all cases the worst solution to any problem

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
tsimionescu 7y ago
Yes, that's why capitalists drive on private roads only, and go to private courts when they get in trouble with private police forces. They also honk to honor their private armies and thank them for their service. The private fire service is of course a pillar of most capitalist communities as well.
- mullingitover 7y ago
  ...And we're writing about this on an internet that was developed by privately funded defense researchers and private universities. You can use this internet to get driving directions via privately funded geolocation satellites.
  - tsimionescu 7y ago
    No, the internet originally was funded almost exclusively by public money (US military and CERN being some of the biggest contributors), and there is basically no such thing as "privately funded defense researchers" - almost by definition, defense research is funded by public money, or at least by private investors looking to get their money back by selling to the state. Universities also tend to do research funded by outside grants, which in the early days of computer technology were, again, almost exclusively public US military budgets. GPS is a public utility, as are GLONASS and Galileo, so I'm not even sure what "privately funded geolocation satellites" you are talking about. Regardless, your claim was a universal (the state is worse at providing ALL services) so showing some services which the state is much better at providing is enough to prove you were wrong.

gwbas1c 7y ago

> I had the unchecked belief that China claiming to be a communist country would be covering medical costs. Communism and socialism are two different things. Communist states like China are very different than socialist states like in Europe that have free health care. Why confuse the two?

dang 7y ago

Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines? Going on about downvotes is explicitly against them, and guarantees further downvotes. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html