Children and adults receive vaccinations at the Jiangbei Community Health Service Center on September 15, 2026 in Huizhou, Guangdong province of China.<\/p>\n
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images<\/p>\n
BEIJING \u2014 High healthcare costs are a big factor driving people in China to save, rather than spend, their money, the International Monetary Fund pointed out in a new book<\/a> titled “Toward a New Economic Growth Model for China.”<\/p>\n In rural China, 8.7% of disposable income is spent on healthcare \u2014 just second to the U.S. among 20 major economies, the research found. The U.S. ranks the highest in the world with nearly 9.9% of disposable income spent on healthcare.<\/p>\n Urban China ranks third, at 5.4%, slightly more than Canada, the data showed.<\/p>\n The level of the healthcare burden in China grows starker when considering per capita disposable income<\/a> in the U.S. was $68,289 as of the end of last year \u2014 more than 10 times more than China’s 43,377 yuan in U.S. dollar terms (around $6,400).<\/p>\n The gap widens further when looking at China’s countryside, which only officially emerged from extreme poverty in 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n Urban China recorded more than twice the disposable income as rural areas, at 56,502 yuan versus 24,456 yuan, according to official data accessed via Wind Information.<\/p>\n Targeted measures to raise government spending on health and social security in rural areas can significantly reduce the savings rate in rural households, the IMF said, citing prefecture-level analysis. <\/p>\n