Healthcare reforms to be good for China's economy

The opening up in China, he said, "has been a great success."

"But I would hesitate to free up the health sector so quickly. I think that is one of the sectors in the economy where the public control actually makes sense," he pointed out.

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The real cost of healthcare

"Looking at the healthcare systems around the world, the ones that are most efficient in terms of keeping people healthy and less costly are the ones where the community medical providers are either employed by the government or employed by companies that are largely contracting to the government and not operating as separate businesses," McFadden elaborated.

"Do not copy the United States, that is a very inefficient healthcare system," he underlined.

The professor noted that in most countries the healthcare system accounts for around 10 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

"In the United States it is 17 percent, very expensive, while there are some countries including China which need to put more of the national income into health," he explained to Xinhua.

However, McFadden stressed, the benchmark should not be how much a country spends on health but how healthy it keeps the population and how truly concerned its doctors are about the health of their patients.

By these standards, he said, "China still has a ways to go" but has started a reform process which has already led the country to "doing a lot better than it used to."

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