Archive for ‘Good news’

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04/09/2012

* Healthcare system to get 400b yuan injection

Chronic Disease

Chronic Disease (Photo credit: tamahaji)

China Daily: “Increase in cases of chronic diseases can mean opportunities for medical firms

Deng Jianping currently spends around 500 yuan ($79) a month on medicine for blood pressure, diabetes and coronary heart disease.

The 68-year-old Beijinger said his wife has more chronic diseases and her medication costs even more, while his two sons, 42 and 38, also need to take medicine every day for hypertension and heart illness.

Wang and his family are among the more than 260 million Chinese people, around a quarter of the nation’s population, who have been diagnosed with chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases.

The Ministry of Health said that around 10 million people in China have contracted chronic diseases every year since 2002.

“Prevention and control of chronic diseases will be one of the seven top tasks of China’s medical care reform by 2020,” said Health Minister Chen Zhu.

The central government will invest a total of 400 billion yuan by 2020 in the seven key projects, which also involve improvements to the grassroots healthcare system, psychological disease prevention, the construction of a digital public health information network, medical device innovation, the development of traditional Chinese medicine, and the training of general practitioners.

According to the ministry, 85 percent of deaths in China are caused by chronic diseases, with expenditure on the treatment of these accounting for 69 percent of China’s total healthcare costs last year.

Foreign pharmaceutical companies have an advantage in this sector, according to Song Yingtong, a senior analyst at Beijing Chnmed Consulting Co Ltd, a domestic pharmaceutical consulting firm.

“They have accumulated rich experience in chronic disease treatment in developed markets,” he said.”

via Healthcare system to get 400b yuan injection |Hot Issues |chinadaily.com.cn.

Hot on the announcement of expanded care is news of cash injection to make it real.  President Obama “eat your heart out.”

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02/09/2012

* Chinese Military Official Shamed After Attack on Flight Attendant

WSJ: “Even close ties to the military can’t shield boorish Chinese officials from being called out for behaving badly in the age of social media.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency on Saturday issued a report largely confirming the account, originally published on Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblogging service, of an Air China flight attendant who said she was bullied by a Chinese official and his wife in a conflict over carry-on luggage during a flight on Aug. 29.

The official is identified in the Xinhua report as Fang Daguo, a member of the Communist Party Standing Committee in the Yuexiu district of the southern metropolis of Guangzhou. Mr. Fang is also political commissar for the Yuexiu Armed Forces Department.

Internet users had earlier helped identify Mr. Fang after the flight attendant, whose own identity remains unclear, posted an account of the attack on the microblogging service that quickly went viral.”

via Chinese Military Official Shamed After Attack on Flight Attendant – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Yet another example of the increasing power of the Chinese people due to the Internet. See also:

 

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31/08/2012

* Beleaguered official faces netizens online

China Daily: “A senior work safety official’s grin at the site of a deadly traffic accident in Shaanxi province has become a nightmare haunting him.

Yang Dacai, 55, head of the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Work Safety, was seen to be grinning in a photo taken after he arrived at the scene of a deadly traffic accident on Sunday in Yan’an, Shaanxi. Thirty-six people were killed when a sleeper bus rammed into a truck carrying a tank of methanol and caught fire.

The photo triggered an online wave of criticism among netizens.

The criticism grew louder when photos of Yang wearing five different watches, including Rolex, Mont Blanc and Radar, were posted online.

Many bloggers questioned how he could afford the costly timepieces and called for a corruption investigation.

On Wednesday night, Yang went online and apologized for the “relaxed” grin, saying that he was just trying to cheer people up after a long trudge to the accident site.

And he defended his innocence regarding the watches, saying he had “used legal income” to buy them over the past 10 years and he had reported the situation to the Party’s disciplinary organization.

Despite this, the Party Discipline Inspection Commission of Shaanxi has started an investigation on Yang, who would be punished if he is found to have violated disciplines or committed corruption, cnwest.com, an online news portal of Shaanxi, reported on Thursday.”

via Beleaguered official faces netizens online |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

The Internet is continuing to ‘liberate’ Chinese citizens and cede power from (minor) officials.

See also: * How China’s 300m microbloggers are shaking the system (chindia-alert.org)

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31/08/2012

* Insurance to cover serious illnesses

China Daily: “China on Thursday announced a decision to expand the coverage of the country’s healthcare insurance system to include the treatment of critical illnesses, aiming to prevent patients from being reduced to poverty by necessary healthcare costs.

The new arrangement will further increase the level of protection that China’s healthcare insurance system can offer, according to a document co-issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and five other central government departments.

Sun Zhigang, head of the health reform office under the State Council, said it aims to ensure that each patient’s total medical expenditure is no more than the “household expenditure for healthcare,” which is set at the level of the regional annual per capita disposable or net income.

In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Sun said when patients’ medical bills for necessary treatments under the existing basic healthcare insurance system exceed that level, they will be reimbursed by the newly launched critical illness insurance project.

Though around 1.3 billion people, or more than 95 percent of China’s population, were covered by the healthcare insurance system by the end of last year, medical expenditure burdens incurred by patients with severe medical conditions remain heavy, Sun said.

“The new move targets the widely recognized problem of ‘people falling into poverty because of illnesses’, and aims to ensure that most people won’t become impoverished because of diseases,” Sun said.”

via Insurance to cover serious illnesses |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

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31/08/2012

* India’s economic growth better than forecast

BBC News: “India’s economy grew faster than expected in the three months to the end of June, easing some fears about a sharp slowdown in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Growth was 5.5% in the April to June period from a year earlier. Most analysts had forecast a rate of 5.2%.

That compares with a 5.3% annual growth rate in the previous quarter.

However, there are concerns that a lack of reforms, slowing factory output and investment may hurt long-term growth.

“Whilst an upside surprise at 5.5%, the pace of growth is undeniably below potential and validates the need for the government to address sluggishness in investment and external sector activity,” said Radhika Rao an economist at Forecast Pte.”

via BBC News – India’s economic growth better than forecast.

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10/08/2012

* China starts construction on 5.8 mln low-income housing units

Xinhua: “China started building 5.8 million low-income housing units in the first seven months of this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said Friday.

Construction on 3.6 million affordable homes has been basically completed in the period, the ministry said in a brief statement on its website.

The government vowed to start construction on more than 7 million low-income housing units this year, part of its five-year plan to build 36 million such units by 2015.

The government has stepped up its efforts in the construction of affordable housing in recent years, aiming to cool the country’s runaway property prices.”

via China starts construction on 5.8 mln low-income housing units – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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10/08/2012

Once again, some signs that China is ‘softening’ on contovertial cases. Question is: is it a general policy or only for this year, the year of leadership change?

Posted in China alert, Citizens's rights, Good news, Human rights, Illegal practices, Justice, Politics, Reform, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

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09/08/2012

* Indian Govt to pick up medical tab for poor

Times of India: “It’s raining sops for the poor. The government is making treatment of people below the poverty line suffering from mental disorders and diabetes free at government or public super speciality hospitals like AIIMS.

Yesterday, TOI had reported the government’s plan to gift cell phones to the poor.

In the maiden endorsement of India’s swelling burden of patients suffering from mental disorders, the ministry has included it under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) — the scheme that till now provided financial assistance to only those BPL patients suffering from major life-threatening diseases like cancer.

All BPL patients suffering from mental disorders like depression, anxiety, adjustment and personality disorders will be given a free one-time grant of upto Rs 1 lakh for treatment.

In cases where the quantum of financial assistance is likely to exceed Rs 1.5 lakh, they will be referred to an expert committee headed by the DGHS for consideration.”

via Govt to pick up medical tab for poor – The Times of India.

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05/08/2012

* China nabs 137 for organ traffick

China Daily: “Chinese police said Saturday that 137 suspects had been arrested in the latest crackdown on human organ trafficking, amid intense pressure on finding sufficient donors through official channels.

The operation was jointly conducted by 18 provincial police authorities in late July, who also rescued 127 organ suppliers, according to a statement from the Ministry of Public Security on Saturday.

Police said that the detained suspects illegally recruited suppliers over the Internet, facilitated the deals and made huge profits from the transactions, which had endangered the health of the suppliers and placed a heavy financial burden on the recipients.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that about 1.5 million Chinese need organ transplants, but only around 10,000 transplants are performed annually due to a lack of donors.

The huge gap has led to a thriving illegal market for human organs, though the government has repeatedly pledged to improve its regulations on organ transplants and increase organ supply.

In spring 2007, China’s central government issued its first national level regulations on human organ transplants, banning organizations and individuals from trading human organs in any form.”

via China nabs 137 for organ traffick |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

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02/08/2012

* India allows Pakistan investment

BBC News: “India has announced that it will allow investment from Pakistan in what is seen as a boost for bilateral economic ties.

The commerce ministry said a citizen or a company of Pakistan is permitted to make investments in India.

However, no such investments can be made in defence, space or atomic energy, the ministry said.

India and Pakistan resumed formal peace talks last year after they were broken off following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

India blamed the attacks on Pakistan-based militants.

A commerce ministry release on Wednesday said all foreign direct investment proposals from Pakistan would need the clearance of the country’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

“It is a great decision… Now Pakistan should also implement the most favoured nation (MFN) trading status to India,” Rajiv Kumar of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) was quoted as saying by the state-run Doordarshan news channel.

Earlier this year, Pakistan indicated that it would offer India MFN trading status, which India has already extended to Pakistan.

The move is part of a pledge made last year to liberalise trade with India. Formal trade between the countries is worth $2.7bn a year, while informal trade, by way of smuggling, is believed to be three times that, experts say.”

via BBC News – India allows Pakistan investment.

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