China's health care system is plagued by inequity. The number of top-tier, or tertiary, hospitals is heavily skewed toward eastern regions, and almost half the country's top 50 hospitals are in Beijing and Shanghai. The uneven distribution of resources is a major cause of domestic medical tourism, which is straining a localized insurance system that is tied up in red tape, hindering almost any efforts to introduce reform.
Shandong province-native Lu Xiao is one case. He traveled more than 400 kilometers to Beijing with his mother in search of specialist care to treat her liver cancer that they believed would be much better than local treatment. They have been staying in a small hotel near Peking Union Medical College Hospital since mid-January so his mother could receive chemotherapy once a month and relevant care called PICC maintenance once a week.
