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A coronavirus lesson from China: don’t make patients pay for tests and treatment
- People with lower incomes will be deterred from seeking treatment if they face health care costs, worsening the epidemic, specialist says
- But ‘aggressive testing was not realistic in most countries’
Reading Time:3 minutes
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As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, China has one important lesson for other governments in fighting the disease – be prepared to pay so that patients won’t let costs deter them from getting tests and treatment.
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The coronavirus – which causes a disease called Covid-19 – has spread to more than 100 countries, with Italy, Iran and South Korea emerging as growing epicentres of the epidemic.
Italy has reported more than 10,000 cases of infection, overtaking South Korea as the worst affected country outside China. The United States has also begun to report more confirmed cases as health authorities cleared some restrictions that had limited the availability of testing for the contagion.
But in China, where the disease was first reported, the epidemic is waning, with just 19 new cases of infection on Tuesday.
A coronavirus test reportedly costs about 370 yuan (US$53) in China. And in the southern city of Shenzhen, the average cost of treating the disease ranged from 23,000 yuan for elderly patients to about 5,600 yuan for minors, Chinese Hospital Management journal reported on February 28.
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Some of the country’s treatment methods such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – which artificially oxygenates a patient’s blood for a limited period of time – are expensive but they are all covered by the government, which has earmarked 110.48 billion yuan for treatment, subsidies for medical staff and medical equipment.
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