Coronavirus pandemic: Why China’s gigantic healthcare apparatus failed

China’s coronavirus cases have gradually begun to subside, although it took three months to bring it under control. The virus which was first reported on December 31, has now spread to 120 countries.

In the last two decades, China has been able to ramp-up investment in its health sector from nearly 500 billion yuan to six trillion in 2018, according to a report.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in China, the basic medical insurance system covers over 95 per cent of the population.

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The entire Chinese health apparatus is undertaken by the government at the central and local level with 'overall responsibility for national health legislation, policy, and administration'.

Impressively, the government claimed in 2014, it spent approximately 5.6 per cent of its GDP - approximately $922 billion - on health care, with 30 per cent financed by the central government and local governments and 38 per cent by publicly financed health insurance, private health insurance, or social health donations.

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Those are outstanding figures by any stretch of the imagination for a country which has been able to divert its resources into a health system in just two decades.

However, where the 'system' has failed is in its response, like SARS in 2002-03, China in 2020 hasn’t been able to bring up its ground forces to respond on a war-footing to a burgeoning crisis mainly due to age-old government apathy compounded by an inherent Communist habit of a conspiracy of silence.

Interestingly, apart from a well-funded state health programme, the government does not really help to build an independent private system depriving the populace of a secondary choice with international medical practitioners. A health system based on almost purely on a top-down approach which discourages 'private hand' and does not think out of the box stands exposed when a pandemic hits - clearly China has been stumped twice in two decades and left with much to ponder.

It is not always the impressive investments on paper and vision statements which defines a healthcare system but an early detection and ground-level response including technical support which truly makes for a reliable mechanism.

China’s failure to detect and respond has now become a worldwide pandemic. In the new age, another mistake would prove to be even more costly with the markets already on a tailspin.

The solution - China should throw up open its gates to private ownership and play the role of an “enlightened dictator” or risk similar coronavirus-type pandemic.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)