Going back many years now, I once visited China on a business trip. I was fully insured by the company and had a very strong policy. The policy obviously included hospitalization, repatriation etc.

During the visit, I fell over badly and twisted my ankle. It resulted in nothing else but a very normal sprain. I was checked into an international hospital in Dalian that had been approved by the insurers. The hospital obviously went completely to town on me giving a range of wholly inappropriate tests and scans. I was also provided with a pair of broken wooden circa cultural revolution crutches which I was later told by the insurers to have cost 700 USD (when the USD exchange rate was set at 8.24 rmb).

The total bill the insurers ended up with exceeded 40K USD for one week in hospital with a comparatively minor injury. But it was their nominated hospital. 

Life, Limb, or eyesight.  The only way that I will go to a hospital here is if either of those three things are in danger.

For such a big amount of money, I suggest you consult Chinese lawyer. You should have all Hospital receipts for money you paid!

I would do that that just because laowai in China always pay more money for anything. "Cause we're rich', by Chinese thinking.

It is no wonder there are huge protests against hospitals. 

They are the WORST kind of companies in China. They don't give two shits unless you have a doctor who is a close friend. 

My advice is to make GOOD friends with doctors in China or you will have to pay dearly. 

I know a guy who got seriously sick during Beijing's airpocalypse in 2013, he spent most of his savings to go to the best hospital on Mainland China in Beijing, the doctors gave him countless unnecessary and overly expensive medicine, the bill reached tens of thousands of USD.

I fail to see why this is worse than the people putting poison in babyfood or the ones who hit the accelerator towards people in a pedestrian crossing. 

Your experience sounds truly horrible. I've actually had several encounters with the Chinese hospitals. One thing that protects my family from this kind of thing is the fact that there is some family members who've worked at in the healthcare, and some who have good friends who are doctors. Guangxi cancels out these issues. But then again, guangxi is also the root of the problem. If people had their jobs because of ambition and skills rather than random luck of being friends with someone. Maybe professionalism would be more embedded in Chinese society. 

Half a million in hospital bills. I am sure when you look at your wife and kid, the money is not too important. At least I hope because it is a lot of money for most of us. 

I hope all is well with your wife and baby swampfox.

Congratulations to you both.

I was in the local hospital today to go with a foreign mate to pick up his new baby.  Turns out his baby was the first mixed one born there.  The hospital looks bad, but it actually has a good reputation for delivering babies. The natural birth cost him RMB3.5k.

We went to the city when my wife had our baby.  It was expensive , about RMB15k for a normal natural birth, but I wanted the best doctor I could afford.  I had mates lined up with their cash cards in case things were not straight forward.  Thank fully everything went ok.

The difference in price is large, but so is the difference between the hospitals.  If something had gone wrong for my mate ( thank God all went well), it would have been the city hospital we used that the baby and mum would have been taken to.

Recently, a friend and I done some research on how much to have a baby in a UK hospital for someone not in the system. It was about the same, 1.5K pounds for natural ok birth, raising to 4k pounds if a C section was needed.

I think your experience is a lesson for others..... try to get the best hospital. Even if that means begging for money from everyone you know.

By the way, my experience of Chinese hospitals is that staff have a job similar to herding cats when it come to Chinese visitors. We had to wait in the corridor today while my mate went in to collect his wife and new baby. There were people emptying their kids into the bins so there was piss all over the floor, that was then being dragged into the ward on peoples feet.  Dirty dirty dirty. Take you kids to the fecking toilet for fecks sake.

Wow, at the moment I seem to be surrounded by babies... because I have another recent baby story.

Another mate took his wife to the UK to have her baby a few months back, and she was not impressed with the hospital.  Why?. Because she had no influence over her treatment etc. She could not pay extra to stay in hospital an extra day for example.   She got this for free because she has a spouse visa for the UK.

Anyway, congrats on the wee one

It's a nightmare, but *you* managed to keep both your wife and your baby alive. Congratulation, and hang on. They are lucky to have you. Those people you have to deal with are monsters.

My own experience of hospitals in China was for minor problem my wife had : an upset muscle in her back. The hospital was said to be good. Inside, in the main hall, it was smelling piss, spit on the floor, people smocking in the hall. We pay to see a specialist. From the location of my wife's pain, it have to a muscle, not a spine problem... The guy don't even put her hand on her, he send my wife to X-Ray. We pay for the X-Ray of her back. She lay down on a table, she got X-rayed by a bored operator. Because of her back pain, she couldn't easily lift herself. She ask for help, the operator doesn't give a shit. Eventually, I poke an eye and I help my wife. We go back to the specialist. No surprise, my wife's spine is fine. We got a prescription for painkillers and a patch to apply on the muscle. It costs 500 RMB, and we have enough boxes of painkillers for a herd of elephants. Back home, the treatment would have been rest and massages. Other visits to the hospital were about the same... My wife figured out that we could diagnose as well as the hospital and treat ourselves better and cheaper.

I will be out of China soon. One of the motivation is who will take care of my wife when she will give birth : human beings, not monsters.

Well Baby is doing great , regretfully my wife  has a very long recovery ahead for her.

Due to the hospital's failure to do the right thing , her kidneys have been damaged  and she was given drugs that made the problem worse . now saving up to move her to a different city with me for work , where i can care for her and the baby.