23-Jul-15 After years of provincial pilot programs, a nationwide funding safety net is to be put in place in China to help low-income residents who contract serious illnesses. Medical insurance covering expenses for critical illnesses is to be expanded to include the whole country before the end of this year to help financially challenged residents. [image: Chinese Embassy]

02-Jul-15 Telstra Health has gone live with its ReadyCare telemedicine service, offering phone and video consultations with Australian GPs 24 hours a day. A JV with Swiss telemedicine provider Medgate, ReadyCare is initially targeted at health funds, mining companies, state governments and corporates. It has signed its first big contract with travel insurance firm Cover-More, which handles 35,000 medical episodes annually. [image: Gettty Images]

16-Jun-15 The Japanese government will seek to slash the number of hospital beds by more than 10% to 1.19 million by 2025, hoping it will curb ballooning medical costs in a graying society. To compensate, the government will also step up efforts to ensure that 300,000 patients can receive medical treatment at home or in nursing-care facilities. [image: Wikicommons]

09-Jul-15 Private hospitalization in India is prohibitively costly, a survey by the National Sample Survey Organization has found. On average treatment at a private hospital costs over three times more than at a government facility. People go to private hospitals because government hospitals are so few and under so much pressure, according to the People's Health Movement. [image: Live Mint]

05-Jun-15 China will allow patients to claim medical insurance for visits to private hospitals, its main administrative authority said, marking the latest move from Beijing to ease pressure on the country's over-burdened public healthcare system. [image: Reuters]