Hospitals dishonestly treat themselves to funds

AN INVESTIGATION BY THE AUTHORITIES in Guizhou province in Southwest China found that hospitals at various levels in six cities were colluding with healthy residents to get money from the medical insurance fund. The residents cannot get the money without the hospitals, which issue the invoices required, and the hospitals need the "patients" as they cannot access the fund themselves. Comments:

The collective fall of so many hospitals harms the fairness and justice of basic welfare institutions, exposes loopholes in the medical system, and hurts the country's medical insurance system. Their actions must be investigated and those involved punished according to the law. The big hospitals care about their revenues, not their patients. While the small hospitals lack both funds and patients, and exhaust all possible means to make ends meet. If the money-oriented medical system is not reformed, such swindling of government funds will continue. Moreover, the hospitals should earn their revenue through treating patients, not by selling medicines, and the doctors should enjoy the long overdue freedom to practice wherever they like.

Beijing Youth Daily, Aug 18