To make matters worse, the former medical expense cooperation mechanism, which had once covered most rural residents, vanished with the decline of rural collective economy. And most city dwellers lost the privilege to have their medical expense covered by enterprises or state finance, while a broad umbrella of medical insurance is yet to be established.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health says 44.8 percent of the country's urban population and 79.1 percent of rural residents are not covered by any forms of medical insurance. About half the population does not go to hospitals in case of ailment.

Other statistics are even more alarming. According to a survey done by the China Youth Daily in August, 90 percent of the respondents said they are disgruntled with the current medical system. Another survey report released by the Horizon Key Research Company this week said that medical care with housing and education tops the list of the major problems that Chinese people are concerned with in 2005.

Discontent was fueled by the exposure of a bill scandal in Harbin, capital of northeastern Heilongjiang Province, this winter. Weng Wenhui, 74, was treated for 67 days at a Harbin hospital before dying of cancer on Aug. 6, but the failed treatment left his family a 5.5 million yuan (some 680,000 US dollars) bill.

And Weng's case was not alone. Just eight days before Shangdi Hospital opened, Wang Jianmin, a farmer peasant from Heilongjiang to seek a job in Beijing, was left dead at the hallway of the Tongren Hospital due to his lack of money for treatment.

The two scandals, once disclosed, were taken as a shame to humanitarianism, a credo that was once inscribed on the walls of nearly all of the Chinese hospitals, igniting fierce media and public response on the flawed health care system.

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