From Chinese Press

Who will fix ambulance charges?

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-09 08:02

Ambulance charges are too high for ordinary people patients to afford. But emergency centers operating the ambulances cannot lower the charges because of the high maintenance cost. So, only the government can solve this problem and offer respite to patients, says an article in Beijing News. Excerpts:

An ambulance operator recently charged a patient's family in Henan province more than 5,000 yuan for a round trip of about 600 km, or nearly 10 yuan per km.

The provincial government said the charge was very high but the local price bureau said ambulance charges are fixed through negotiations. And the emergency ambulance provider contended that the patient's family had agreed to the charges by signing the approval note.

The government has to intervene in such cases to relieve the burden of patients and their families, as well as to reduce the maintenance cost of ambulances. The least it can do is to increase the subsidy to emergency service providers to ensure patients get first aid and emergency medical treatment at nominal costs, and hospitals don't have to suffer losses. The government could also streamline the emergency services mechanism by building a fair dealing market.

(China Daily 09/09/2010 page9)