Looming crises threatening to take down China’s healthcare system

 14-Aug-16, Quartz

In the 1980s diabetes was a rarity affecting just one percent of China’s population. Now, due to rapid economic development, and the subsequent growth in availability of high-calorie diets, cars and sedentary lifestyles, China has the highest number of diabetics in the world, totaling 109 mn people in 2015 - roughly 11% of the population.

Image: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

That makes China home to a third of the world’s diabetic population. The scale of this public health problem is huge, particularly because it comes at a time when the country’s health system as a whole is under reform. The Chinese government recently allowed foreign companies to wholly own hospitals in an attempt to meet the needs of the country. 

But the burden is already massive and bound to get worse; the International Diabetes Federation estimates that 13% of medical expenditure in China is directly caused by diabetes, with yearly costs estimated to reach USD47 bn by 2030.

“It will take huge resources to deal with the burden of those with diabetes,” said Paul Zimmet, president of the International Diabetes Federation. “It’s perhaps insurmountable.”

"If we don’t act now," says Bernhard Schwartländer, a WHO representative in China, "diabetes will overwhelm the health system."

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