Over the past few months we’ve been doing lots of health care research and have come across a few interesting stories about health care in “communist” China.

In particular, private health care seems to be doing quite well in the red state.

First, take a look at this column by Howard Anglin from the Canadian Constitution Foundation. In short, Anglin shares an anecdote about how officials from China, who were visiting Canada, were shocked to learn that Canadians often don’t have the option to purchase private health care:

The translator pressed him: “You mean to say that if you’re sick and want to pay for treatment, that you aren’t allowed to? Even though it’s your own money and there is a doctor willing to accept it?”

Yes, that’s right.

There was a pause as the translator relayed the answer to the delegation and the delegation conferred among themselves. Finally, the translator spoke up: “They say that even the Chinese communist system is not this restrictive!”

The second story we came across is from just a few weeks ago. This CBC story  documents how a business owner in Oliver, B.C. decided to shut down her pub and fly back to China for private health care.

In short, Christine MacKinnon had a car accident back in 2017 and the health care system still hasn’t been able to address her continued health problems. As the situation has negatively impacted her ability to work, she made the difficult decision to shut down her pub, fly back to China and hopefully solve her health problems once and for all.

What’s particularly interesting to note is that in China, Christine can get an MRI “the next day.”