At 3:00 PM, Li Chu arrived at Uncle Wang's office door, where he was greeted by Uncle Wang's work secretary.
"Director Liu, is the commander alright now?"
Secretary Liu is also the director of the Second Secretariat of the General Office. The main job of the Second Secretariat is to serve Uncle Wang.
"Dean Li, the leader is waiting for you, and Leader Zhao from the health department is also here."
"Thanks"
In the office, after Secretary Liu poured a glass of water and left, Uncle Wang finally spoke.
"Xiao Chu, it was Lao Zhao who suggested that we call you here. He thinks you have some novel ideas about many things, so he wanted to see what your opinions are on some of the proposals for this meeting."
"Leader Zhao is praising me. Those are just my personal opinions, you can take them with a grain of salt."
Li Chu exchanged a few polite words with Leader Zhao with a few laughs, and then Uncle Wang brought up the two issues that had been giving him a headache at the meeting.
After hearing this, he was filled with questions.
What's going on?
Isn't this a medical work conference? Why are you bringing up insurance?
The system of employers reimbursing medical expenses will be abolished, and replaced with a system where individuals pay for their own insurance, similar to that in Europe and the United States.
Which divine being proposed this? He now desperately wants to meet this Lord and see if he is one of them.
That alone wouldn't have made him suspicious; the most crucial thing was the following.
The government subsidies for hospitals will be cancelled, and they will be required to assume their own profits and losses, thus following a market-oriented approach.
Could someone from this era have come up with the idea to brew something like this?
So many factories and businesses haven't even reached the level of self-sufficiency, and you expect hospitals to achieve that? Isn't that just absurd?
"Uncle, who came up with this idea by squatting there to use the toilet?"
"Let's put the first issue aside. It's not something that the health department can solve. Although the proposal is excellent, it's a very large systemic project that requires the collaboration of multiple departments."
Let's focus on the second point. If hospitals were to be responsible for their own profits and losses, what might happen? The most likely consequence would be exorbitant medical costs, making them unaffordable for ordinary people. As for urban employees, this essentially means shifting these medical expenses to their employers, since their current medical costs are reimbursed by their employers.
However, there are prerequisites for reimbursement by the employer: the individual needs to pay upfront, and the employer will only reimburse after discharge. In this case, it is necessary to consider whether the employer can afford to reimburse.
Leaving aside urban workers, what about the farmers in rural areas? What about those who are unemployed? Are we really going to make sure these people can't afford medical care?
"Ahem... Dean Li," Director Zhao coughed twice before speaking, "So this requires addressing the first issue: when everyone has insurance, will everyone be able to afford medical care?"
“You’re right, universal insurance would be feasible, but there’s a problem: how much should an individual contribute? What’s the reimbursement rate? Does it cover all medical expenses, or what?”
"Uh..." They hadn't even considered these questions, so they definitely didn't know how to answer them when Li Chu asked them.
"Xiao Chu, let's not talk about insurance anymore. Like you said, it's not a problem that one or two departments can solve. Please continue with the issue of hospitals being responsible for their own profits and losses."
Li Chu picked up his cup, took a sip of water, and said, "Uncle, Director Zhao, I have had exchanges with England, France, the United States, Germany, and even small countries before."
Take England, for example. It's probably the oldest capitalist country in the world. They have a universal free healthcare system, and 90% of their hospitals are public and non-profit. Several other countries are the same; the proportion of public hospitals in their countries is no lower than that level.
bidige.
So, what would happen if we, with our different political systems, took this path?
He could be considered to be using magic to defeat magic.
I'm not going to argue with you about the pros and cons of healthcare marketization. It hasn't even happened yet, so who can say for sure what will happen in the future?
Issues like doctor-patient conflicts are difficult to explain now because they haven't actually occurred yet.
Currently, when ordinary people go to the hospital, they have great trust and respect for the doctors and nurses. If you tell them to go east, they will definitely not go west.
Because he knows that whatever the doctors and nurses ask him to do is for his own good, and you're not doing it to make money off them.
Since arguing about right and wrong doesn't work, he can only take a shortcut and use data to speak for himself. Those developed countries in Europe and America all have free medical care and public hospitals. Why do you want our country to go through marketization? What exactly do you want to do?
"Xiao Chu, is the data you mentioned accurate?"
"Of course, there should be records of my conversations with the executives at those pharmaceutical companies. Oh, by the way, those records should have already been submitted to headquarters for filing."
Uncle Wang nodded slowly without saying a word, sitting there seemingly lost in thought.
"Dean Li, why do you think those developed countries do this? Shouldn't they prioritize capital above all else?"
"Minister Zhao, no matter what country or time, the ordinary people at the bottom of society are the largest group. No matter how developed you become, you must leave a way for these people to survive."
When an ordinary person cannot even have their most basic right to health guaranteed, can you imagine the despair they feel? Even if we take a step back and assume the worst, shouldn't our organization prioritize the interests of the people?
"Well said. In our work, we should always prioritize the interests of the people," Uncle Wang said with some emotion, then concluded decisively, "Alright, let's stop talking about the marketization of healthcare."
However, regarding the data from the public hospital in developed Western countries that you mentioned earlier, Xiao Chu, I will verify it with the foreign affairs department. That way, if anyone brings it up again in the future, we can refute them with reason and evidence.”
Do you have any thoughts on insurance?
Hearing Uncle Wang bring this up again, Li Chu was a little confused. Didn't he just say that this wasn't a matter for one department? Why was he being asked again?
"I really don't know much about this, but I think we can send people to those developed countries in Europe and America to conduct on-site investigations and see how they implement universal healthcare. Then, we can combine this with our national conditions to formulate an effective approach."
Uncle Wang nodded noncommittally, then looked at the recorder sitting in the corner and asked, "Xiao Sun, have you written down everything from the conversation just now?"
"I've noted it down, sir."
"Okay, Xiao Chu, you can go back now if there's nothing else."
"Hey, Uncle, you're really discarding me after I've served my purpose! Why aren't you even offering me a meal?"
"Get lost"
The pen in the recorder Xiao Sun's hand tore through the "KuX" mark on the page he was writing in the notebook.
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