Lonnie at One Man Bandwith is considering setting up a charity to support cancer treatment among those who cannot afford it. In China, as he notes, a lack of funds equals death.

The Chinese State media recently reported that a poor (still known as “peasant” here) woman debilitated by a stroke was dropped off at a crematorium, still alive, by her family who had run out of money for her hospitalization. Three days of the woman’s treatment had exhausted their life savings.

She was saved only when the mortician noticed tears coming from her eyes as he prepared her. Later, residents of the area collected money for further treatment.

According to a local official in her area: “The fundamental reason is the absence of a social welfare system.”

China’s Vice Minister of Health estimates that half of all farmers cannot afford medical treatment when sick. In the 70’s, more than 90% of China’s rural population was covered by cooperative medical programs. Those programs ended with the introduction of market reforms.

Another farmer who could not pay for his lung cancer treatment blew up himself, killed another passenger on a bus and wounded some thirty others with a homemade bomb.

And a security guard who had once been hailed a hero in his town jumped to his death while still in the hospital because he knew he would not be able to afford the bills.

The Unsinkable Ms. Yue, the subject of the cancer journals in this blog, is staring down the barrel of the same dilemma: her treatment has already cost the equivalent of 10 year’s of salary in China. Her upcoming chemo’ bills, with the only drug known to be effective in her kind of cancer, will cost another 40 years salary equivalent. If the money is not found, she will not receive treatment. It is simple: pay or die.

Given that peasants were drinking benzene-polluted water for 10 days, there will probably be a few more cases of Chinese who will not be able to afford payment.

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