For a country whose GDP per capita is only 15 percent that of the U.S., consumers in China are paying remarkably high drug prices. Soaring healthcare costs in China have become such a social issue that it came up at Premier Li Keqiang’s annual press conference last Friday. It’s not right that many elderly people see most of their pension benefits spent on daily doses to manage chronic diseases, and the social insurance system will broaden its coverage and raise reimbursement rates, he said. It’s just a matter of time before Indian manufacturers, which make better drugs, enter the $160 billion Chinese market. In China, healthcare costs are mainly covered by state medical insurance and by patients themselves.

Source: Washington Post March 18, 2019 23:26 UTC