Health-care provision in the countryside, once among the proudest achievements of the People's Republic of China, is in disarray. In recent years, debt-burdened rural governments have allowed thousands of hospitals to go to ruin. At most others, officials anxious to recoup expenses are forcing patients to pay such high prices that growing numbers can no longer afford treatment. Could privatisation―China's oft-prescribed solution to recalcitrant problems―be the answer? After tolerating a spate of hospital sell-offs, the government now says yes―up to a point.
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