fessionals (for example, engineers). Thus, it
should not be surprising that once the central
government shed its responsibility for health
care in the 1980s, hospitals and physicians ad
justed by charging whatever the market
would bear. The problem now is how to
change what amounts to an anythinggoes
souk into a disciplined system that can guar
antee decent care for the indigent.
for the affluent while maintaining state
owned hospitals for others. Doctors could be
encouraged to open their own clinics, but as
a condition could be required to devote a
lic hospitals at very modest salaries.
mand for medical care in rural areas, and
have apparently delivered services fairly effi
ciently. The question now is whether the gov
ernment can adequately serve the vast major
ity of rural and urban dwellers who can't
afford private medicine.
cilities and equipment, and it will have to
coax medical workers to move from the cities.
In Mao's day, doctors could be lured to the
communes by ideology or simply ordered to
move by the government. Now they have to
be paid well for their trouble. Indeed, the long