I think you're a bit off the mark. Healthcare is cheap in China, but people are even poorer. Only rich people can afford the important stuff. It's common for young people from poor families to work or forgo their education to pay their sick parent's medical costs. Usually old people just die because they can't afford medical care where in the west, they would be treated. Also doctors are poorly paid and commonly supplement their income with under the table drug sales. Oh, and most of them prescribe fake herbal medicines as if it was real and patients are fooled by it because their culture tells them it works. Imagine getting a vial of homeopathic diluted water and a sugar pill when you complain about a cough. I once knew someone who had TB and was recommended to treat it with an OTC sachet of herb from the pharmacy! It's common to find beggars outside hospitals with signs asking for money to continue their treatment. Insurance? Yes, that exists but the excess is often something like 1/3 the total cost so if you couldn't afford it yourself, you still can't afford it with insurance. That's if you have a high enough income to afford insurance in the first place.
> Imagine getting a vial of homeopathic diluted water and a sugar pill when you complain about a cough.
This happens regularly in western europe, especially by pediatricians. The charitable interpretation is that the doctor knows the child will get better in a few days anyway, but has to give _something_ to soothe the parents. Giving the substance-free stuff is better than unnecessarily medicating the child, and placebo-effect can also play a positive role.
In your subsequent comment you add the important point - this is Germany. Having lived both in Germany and (now) in China, i can confirm that both of these countries have a problem with quack medicine. I've never been anywhere else in the world where you need to argue with pharmacists to persuade them to sell you evidence-based medicine.
In China there is some historical reason for it - Mao needed something to placate the peasants while trying to figure out how to provide healthcare to rural areas[0]. Unfortunately the government is still trying to figure that out.
I don't know what the history is in Germany that caused it to be the way it is.
Note that homeopathy was invented by a German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann. It grew big at the turn of last century, with hundreds of homeopathic societies with their own apothecaries.
Today, lobbying powers of a profitable industry also play into it.
The parents that know they're gonna get a placebo because the kid will get better regardless probably aren't bringing their kids to the doctor for the kinds of ailments that result in a placebo.
Anecdotally, 90% of the times I've taken my toddlers to the doctor I've gone home with advice to take paracetamol and wait it out.
Kids can get high fevers really fast and you just want to make sure their lungs & heart are ok, they don't have a throat / ear infection etc. A doc can verify that for you in 5 min so I rather be safe than sorry, an "OK" is all I need.
> Insurance? Yes, that exists but the excess is often something like 1/3 the total cost so if you couldn't afford it yourself, you still can't afford it with insurance.
