SOCIALIZED MEDICINE EVEN FAILING THE POOR IN CHINA!

BBC: Beijing's poor visit illegal clinics

Outside a backstreet clinic in Beijing

In a village on the outskirts of Beijing, a red cross and the word "clinic" have been hand painted on a sign hanging outside a backstreet shop.

Inside there is a table and desk, a bed with a dirty pink sheet on it, and a set of shelves covered with boxes and bottles of medicine.

People go there to seek medical advice, admits the man in charge, although he refuses to show the BBC the clinic's permission to practise.

Dressed in a black jacket and jeans, he does not look like a doctor and turns away when asked about his own medical training.

Beijing city government admits that the Chinese capital has a problem with illegal medical centres - known as black clinics.

It closed down more than 3,300 of these unregulated and sometimes dangerous clinics last year alone.

'Not safe'

They are set up to serve the capital's poorest people, many of them migrant workers who have come to Beijing to find a job.

Most are on the outskirts of the city, often near large construction sites that can employ hundreds of migrant workers.

They offer a cheaper alternative to the city's government-backed clinics and hospitals.

... visit to this medical centre can cost 10 times more than to an illegal clinic.

China is currently in the middle of reforming its health care system and is trying to give everyone basic health insurance.

But not everyone has the insurance and even those who do still have to pay something towards their medical bills - a burden some find too great.

One person who struggles to pay is Jinzhan resident Yao Ya, who moved to Beijing from the nearby province of Hebei with her five-year-old child.

She admits that she sometimes visits black clinics. "If my child got a cold or a fever I'd have to take him to a proper place, but if it was me who was ill I wouldn't bother," she said.

Beijing's city government has launched a campaign to close down the capital's illegal clinics, but it says that is not an easy task.

"As illegal medical practices are mainly concentrated in the hidden integration of urban and rural districts and rural areas, they are difficult to combat," said a statement from the local health authority.

Officials hope to persuade poorer people that they could be endangering their health by visiting black clinics.

But while people remain poor, black clinics will remain tempting.

EVEN IN RED CHINA PRIVATE HEALTHCARE IS CHEAPER THAN SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE.

IF THE CHINESE CANT MAKE IT WORK THERE - IN A POLICE STATE, AND IF THE BRITS CAN'T MAKE IT WORK, EITHER THEN WE WON'T MAKE IT WORK HERE.

PEOPLE WHO FAVOR SOCIALIZED MEDICINE ARE WITHER CORRUPT POWER-GRABBERS OR DELUDED IDEALISTS.