China's Medical Boom

Suzanne Barlyn(Time, October 20, 2008)
"Tourist Jack Golden remembers a recent trip to China for all the wrong reasons. Golden, of Lenox, Mass., had a prostate condition that required medical treatment during a Yangtze River cruise. He had to endure an invasive procedure without anesthesia at a small, gritty hospital in Fengdu, an ancient city on the river's north bank. And that was the easy part. 'The Chinese accept it because this is what they have,' he says. Acquiescence to substandard health care is changing in China, especially where rapid economic progress has improved the financial well-being of the country's growing zhong chan jie ji, or middle class. More and more Chinese are willing to pay for superior health-care services. Their presence, combined with an increased number of expatriates and business travelers, has created a niche opportunity for foreign businesses. Several U.S.-based companies are setting up and managing hospitals and Western-style outpatient clinics through joint ventures with Chinese companies. About half the physicians of such companies are expats -- typically from the U.S., Canada and Australia... Premium health care is an outgrowth of the increased consumption of luxury goods and services that were once largely unaffordable in China -- from cars to Louis Vuitton pocketbooks. According to Euromonitor International, from 2005 to January of last year, China's middle class grew 24%, from 64.4 million to 80 million."