Health Care Website and Blog

Healthcare equipment makers are eyeing the Chinese market for opportunities after the government unveiled a blueprint for healthcare reform in the country yesterday.

China's healthcare system is also floundering - though for different reasons than the American system. After the country tried to switch to the market system in the 1980s, state funds for public hospitals dwindled, and doctors tried to cover costs by prescribing costly and profitable treatments. Quality healthcare has been unaffordable for ordinary Chinese a long time.

The government now plans to provide basic medical care as a public service, and expand facilities through the nation. This should create opportunities for all people connected with medicine - health professionals and equipment makers.

Economic troubles force the government of Alberta, one of Canada's provinces, to present its first deficit budget in 15 years tomorrow.

Dave Eggen of Friends of Medicare said he expected the government not to use this as an excuse to cut basic services for health. Alberta's medical superboard is waiting for the budget to determine whether it will have enough cash to, among other things, open a 140-bed expansion at Peter Lougheed Hospital in northeast Calgary without closing other units.

An annual increase in the health budget is usually necessary, but this year's increase will probably be less than in previous years and may not be enough to make up for the pressures of inflation and population growth. The government may also be cutting funding for about 30 services like podiatry (the branch of medicine concerned with foot disorders).

In Minnesota, the public safety net for the poor is shrinking, and the private safety net is overwhelmed by the sheer scale of need.

Last year, the number of Minnesotans receiving cash assistance from the state dropped 20%, even when the number of families in poverty increased 20%. The number receiving subsidised medical care through MinnesotaCare reduced 25%, even as the number of the uninsured climbed steadily.

At privately funded charity clinics like the Open Door Health Center in Mankato, staff are unable to cope with the number of people coming in - they turned away 100 patients last month.