Health care reform has a long way to go, as can be seen from the United States health care system.
Some time ago, the mainland medical field ushered in a major change, and this change is related to foreign investment, because China will open the threshold for foreign investment to enter the medical system.
There are a total of nine pilot projects in China, including the four major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, in addition to Guangdong Province, Hainan Province, Shanghai and Beijing Municipality, which can also carry out additional activities in related fields such as human stem cells and genes.
So the question is, is the entry of foreign-funded hospitals good or bad for China?
Let's find out!
1. Benefits of foreign-funded hospitals
Nine pilot cities allow foreign-funded hospitals to enter, do you know what that means?
This means that after foreign-funded hospitals enter China, if they can play a catfish effect and promote the progress and development of China's medical treatment, then the entry threshold for foreign-funded hospitals will be further opened in the next step.
Seeing this, many people will have such questions, didn't the mainland have foreign-funded hospitals before?
More than a decade ago, foreign-owned hospitals were joint ventures, and in short, Chinese companies had to have a stake in the medical institutions. Foreign-owned hospitals now refer to wholly foreign-owned enterprises, which can be operated independently or carry out a series of medical activities.
As we all know, Tesla is the first wholly foreign-owned enterprise in China, and Tesla's entry has brought vitality to the Chinese car company market.
When China's new energy vehicles began to explode, Chinese consumers are increasingly recognizing electric vehicles, and this is the "catfish effect" brought by Tesla. Now it seems that China's opening up of foreign-funded hospitals also has such a purpose.
However, there are pros and cons to everything, and the same is true for foreign-funded hospitals entering China.
2. Disadvantages of foreign-funded hospitals
You must know that our domestic hospitals have adopted the "self-financing" business model, for such hospitals, making money is the first priority, and it is precisely because of this that there is a popular saying in the society now, "small diseases are treated, major illnesses are cured for a long time, and no diseases are also treated".
The reason why hospitals are over-medicalized is because everything is about money!
As we all know, Western countries are rich in medical resources and first-class medical technology, and once such foreign-funded hospitals enter China, they will definitely have an impact on mainland hospitals. Of course, many people will also disagree, because they think that the cost of treatment in foreign-funded hospitals is too high, and it is not a place to treat the poor at all.
If you have such an idea, you are very wrong, some foreign-funded hospitals are expensive, but some foreign-funded hospitals are cheaper, do you know? As long as it is approved, foreign-funded hospitals can also go through medical insurance!
After the pilot, it is a large-scale entry stage, if it really goes that far, it will have a huge impact on domestic hospitals, of which the biggest impact is those small and medium-sized hospitals, these hospitals have limited medical conditions, and there is no price advantage.
Coupled with the impression that people are over-medical, these hospitals will suffer a huge impact.
Of course, it may take a long time for foreign-funded hospitals to go from pilot to large-scale popularization, leaving plenty of time for domestic hospitals to become better.
3. The development of foreign-funded hospitals in China
In 2017, the mainland allowed foreign-funded hospitals to enter China in the form of joint ventures, in fact, before that, the mainland had considered allowing wholly foreign-owned capital to open hospitals in the mainland, but the relevant policies were not introduced for a long time.
Until 2024, foreign-funded hospitals will finally come, and you must know that China has been thinking about this for a total of ten years.
Now it seems that in the early stage of the development of foreign-funded hospitals, high-end medical care was the mainstay, which we can see from the hospitals that entered China. For example, the famous Mayo Clinic, which is the number one private hospital in the United States.
Chinese have a large population, and the demand for medical institutions is naturally very large, you must know that there are more than one million large and small medical institutions in China.
These hospitals seem to be a lot, but in the face of 1.4 billion people, these medical institutions are obviously insufficient, allowing foreign-funded hospitals to enter China, on the one hand, can reduce China's medical pressure, on the other hand, can also improve the level of medical services, and most importantly, can meet the needs of some people for high-end medical care.
As we all know, the better the hospital in China, the more difficult it is to register, and China is about to enter an aging society, and people's demand for medical care is increasing every year. At this time, foreign-funded private hospitals come into play!
4. Public hospitals and private hospitals are not a multiple-choice question
In fact, when it comes to public hospitals and foreign-funded private hospitals, it is not a matter of life and death, the scale of China's medical market is close to 10 trillion, and with such a large market size, public hospitals and foreign-funded hospitals can coexist.
From the perspective of the cost of medical treatment, the cost of medical treatment in public hospitals at this stage is far lower than that of foreign-funded hospitals.
However, the price of medical treatment in foreign-funded hospitals will not be so expensive forever, and there is a slow process of hospital price reduction, and public hospitals can use this time to improve their own medical technology and medical service level.
So at this time, the reputation of the hospital is very important.
Now our hospitals are still a seller's market, there are many people who see a doctor, and there are few choices, but once a large number of foreign-funded hospitals enter, then people can choose more, and at this time China's medical market will become a buyer's market.
From the perspective of several pilot cities, they are basically concentrated in first-tier cities, which is enough to see that China's pilot is mainly aimed at foreign-funded high-end medical care.
Therefore, public hospitals and private hospitals are not a multiple-choice question but a judgment question, and the criterion for judging is whether you have money or not. If you are not short of money, you can choose a foreign-funded hospital, and if you are shy of money, you can choose a public hospital.
If the pilot of foreign-funded hospitals is done well, then the mainland may continue to liberalize the policy in the future, so that more high-quality foreign-funded hospitals can enter China.
Because the market plate is so big, in the case of "more wolves and less meat", if you want to get more customer traffic, in addition to improving the level of medical care, there is only one way to reduce prices.
In this way, it is good for consumers for foreign-funded hospitals to enter China, and for public hospitals to be good or bad, it is up to the benevolent and the wise to see the wise!
I saw the big news of China's medical market, so what do you think about it, welcome to leave a message in the comment area and tell us your views!