Friday, February 2- China (Other)

Friday, February 2

Health care costs are rapidly rising in China. The government has taken control of the cost of some medications within the past couple of years in a desperate attempt to try and help the population of China with medical expenses so more can afford to take care of their health.
Last Tuesday, China's highest economic planning body announced to the people that they "will slash the price of more than 240 drugs by twenty percent on average while increasing the price of about 100 other medicines that are in high demand." These cuts went into effect on Friday.
It seems to me that prices of medicines in China are out of control. People there seem to have gotten out of control economically, and they were not balancing the costs evenly with the demands of certain medicines. Several years later, the goverment is rushing around trying to make decisions about what should be what cost and who it will benefit, either the citizens or the market.
A NDRC official was quoted, stating "'We will continue to lower the cost of overpriced drugs. We will stop price cuts of low-cost drugs that are widely used to encourage production and we will properly raise the price of medicines that are in high demand and often sold out.'"
Medicine is a very serious market, and people need it to survive. The article also discussed slashing the prices of 67 cancer drugs by an average of twenty-three percent last June. China is very populated, and since there are so many people, I am sure that sickness is common. In a situation like that, I feel there is no place in error with the economy of medicine. It is good news it is being corrected, but even poor people grow sick with cancer, and it is not fair that they were overpriced at one time. Hopefully the medical economy balances itself out and hopefully remains this way for the good of the citizens and their health.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-01/23/content_790618.htm