I was born in mainland China. My parents grew up in Guangdong Province. Its actually not that much different from the US. And everything is paid out-of-pocket. I don’t think there’s even a “Medicare” for older people, that along with most older people from many places having no retirement income (other than their own savings), and even children / young people with disabilities don’t get any “Medicare”, not SNAP, for that matter, its not a fun place to be in.
I mean at one point I was reading all these supposed “free healthcare” comments about PRC, and I asked myself did I remember it wrong?, I asked my mother about the “free” healthcare thing, and she told me no, that’s not a thing.
Very interesting, what period of time was this? Because universal healthcare has rapidly developed in just the last 5-10 years. According to the WHO 95% of China now has basic health coverage, free of charge.
(And yes there are going to be gaps in the system, there will be gaps in any rapidly-developing universal program)
So I just asked my dad, the current system is basically like the US. Most people get insurance from their employers. Older people have a very bare-bones “medicare”/insurance that they pay one a year for access to it. Health insurance barely covers anything, like no dental coverage for example.
As for retirement, most people didn’t have them before, now, more and more people have it. Its like ¥100-¥200 a month or something. Some people still don’t have it. All depends on the job. Like a teacher/professor would probably have these, others might not.
As for unemployment benefits, again, it depends, its job-by-job basis, many won’t have it.
Basically its like the US’s healthcare system from what I can understand. (English is my primary language so I might not have been understanding the full conversation in Cantonese)
That’s good to know! So it’s there, but very spotty and inadequate in areas. Still better than nothing like in the US.
I live in Canada where we have the “best” universal healthcare system in the world by some estimates (single payer, free universal healthcare as a right for all citizens), but we only got dental and pharmacy care added to our program last year. Since the 1960s until 2024 our universal healthcare system was the same “basics only” coverage for hospital and physician visits, and everything else was tied to private insurance. Vision care still isn’t covered.
We immigrated to the US around 2010, I still have aunts in China, so I could ask my parents to ask them about the current situation.
According to the WHO 95% of China now has basic health coverage, free of charge.
Note it says “basic health coverage”, the wording implies that those that are not considered “basic”/essentialgets excluded. Think of the US and the ACA thing. How good really is ACA? Certainly very far off from Norway.
“Universal Healthcare” =/= “Free Healthcare”
I was born in mainland China. My parents grew up in Guangdong Province. Its actually not that much different from the US. And everything is paid out-of-pocket. I don’t think there’s even a “Medicare” for older people, that along with most older people from many places having no retirement income (other than their own savings), and even children / young people with disabilities don’t get any “Medicare”, not SNAP, for that matter, its not a fun place to be in.
I mean at one point I was reading all these supposed “free healthcare” comments about PRC, and I asked myself did I remember it wrong?, I asked my mother about the “free” healthcare thing, and she told me no, that’s not a thing.
Very interesting, what period of time was this? Because universal healthcare has rapidly developed in just the last 5-10 years. According to the WHO 95% of China now has basic health coverage, free of charge.
(And yes there are going to be gaps in the system, there will be gaps in any rapidly-developing universal program)
So I just asked my dad, the current system is basically like the US. Most people get insurance from their employers. Older people have a very bare-bones “medicare”/insurance that they pay one a year for access to it. Health insurance barely covers anything, like no dental coverage for example.
As for retirement, most people didn’t have them before, now, more and more people have it. Its like ¥100-¥200 a month or something. Some people still don’t have it. All depends on the job. Like a teacher/professor would probably have these, others might not.
As for unemployment benefits, again, it depends, its job-by-job basis, many won’t have it.
Basically its like the US’s healthcare system from what I can understand. (English is my primary language so I might not have been understanding the full conversation in Cantonese)
Its very far from Norway’s utopia.
That’s good to know! So it’s there, but very spotty and inadequate in areas. Still better than nothing like in the US.
I live in Canada where we have the “best” universal healthcare system in the world by some estimates (single payer, free universal healthcare as a right for all citizens), but we only got dental and pharmacy care added to our program last year. Since the 1960s until 2024 our universal healthcare system was the same “basics only” coverage for hospital and physician visits, and everything else was tied to private insurance. Vision care still isn’t covered.
But it is literally like the US’s ACA.
We immigrated to the US around 2010, I still have aunts in China, so I could ask my parents to ask them about the current situation.
Note it says “basic health coverage”, the wording implies that those that are not considered “basic”/essentialgets excluded. Think of the US and the ACA thing. How good really is ACA? Certainly very far off from Norway.