大家好，今天咱们聊点沉重又荒诞的事儿——中国医院的财务危机。

先问大家一个问题：你们听说过医院破产吗？对，医院！不是那种黑心诊所，也不是庸医横行的小诊所，而是堂堂正正的医院！

有一家医院，曾经专治男性不育、性病，生意做得风生水起，结果呢？倒闭了！去年9月，法院直接贴了封条，医院空了，设备家具都不见了，比“人去楼空”还彻底。要说这家医院倒闭，也不是一天两天的事儿，早前就因为欠薪被警告，法院传票发了都没人理，最后只能一拍两散。

其实不止是这家，整个中国的医院，不管公立私立，都在勒紧裤腰带过日子。为什么？

先来说说疫情。那时候，国家一声令下，医院全力防疫，做核酸检测做得比做手术还勤快。结果检测的钱花出去了，病人却不来了。谁敢去医院？医院里不是病人多，而是病毒多，大家都害怕去。

等到疫情结束，本想着医院能喘口气，结果又迎来房地产市场崩盘，经济下滑。老百姓兜里没钱了，看病都开始精打细算，能拖就拖。公立医院本来还能靠政府补贴撑一撑，可地方政府也穷啊！

再来，医保基金也快扛不住了。中国人均寿命越来越长，生病的成本越来越高，但缴医保的年轻人越来越少。国家一看，这不行啊，赶紧削减支出。结果呢？医院的钱越来越紧，医生的工资越来越少，连医院里的免费饮用水都被砍了……

有的医院扩张太快，贷款盖新大楼，结果病人没增加，收入却砍了一半。甚至有的医院还花大价钱买了一架钢琴放大厅里，咋的，治病讲究艺术熏陶吗？

过去五年，200多家医院破产，而再往前五年，只有7家破产。这趋势，就像是医院集体约好了似的，排队等倒闭。

医护人员的日子也不好过。浙江一家公立医院的护士杨娜娜，干了12年，第一次遇到减薪。餐补没了，免费水没了，连她们科室的灯泡都快拧不亮了。

有个医院，花了1.2亿盖新楼，想着冲刺中国最高级别的医院。结果疫情来了，病人没了，收入直接砍半，最后连员工工资都发不出来。

政府也着急，开始想办法控制成本，比如集中采购药品，价格是压下来了，但质量问题又引发争议。有的病人开始转向社区诊所，甚至远程医疗——医院，你别说，还真有点被淘汰的趋势。

当然，最狠的是年轻人。越来越多的人干脆不交医保了，反正看病都那么贵，交了医保也不能全报销，干脆省点钱直接去买高端体检套餐去了。

这事儿最后会怎么收场？清华的专家说，医保基金再这么花下去，十年就没了。政府已经开始提高退休年龄、削减医保支出了，但这只是开始。未来会怎么样？可能医院门口都会挂上新的标语：

“入院请自带水，医生收费讲价，病房可拼单。”

英文版：

Hello everyone! Today, let’s talk about something both heavy and absurd—China’s hospital financial crisis.

Let me ask you: Have you ever heard of a hospital going bankrupt? Not some shady clinic, not some back-alley doctor’s office, but a real hospital!

There was this hospital specializing in male infertility and STDs. Business was booming, and then—bam! It went bankrupt. Last September, the court sealed the doors. The hospital was empty, furniture and equipment gone. It was like “ghost town,” but medically themed. They had already been warned about unpaid wages, ignored court summons, and finally, the authorities just shut it down.

But it's not just this hospital—hospitals all over China, public and private, are struggling. Why?

First, COVID. The government went all-in on pandemic prevention. Hospitals did more COVID tests than surgeries. The money was spent, but patients stopped coming. Who wanted to go to a hospital full of viruses?

Then COVID ended, and hospitals thought they could breathe easy—nope! The real estate market crashed, the economy slumped, and people started saving money by delaying non-emergency treatments. Public hospitals usually get some government support, but even local governments are broke now.

Then there’s the fundamental issue: China’s population is aging. Medical costs are rising faster than insurance revenue. The government started cutting expenses, which meant hospitals were left scrambling. Doctors got pay cuts, meal subsidies were gone, and even free drinking water in some hospitals disappeared.

Many hospitals expanded too quickly, taking out loans to build new wings. But patients didn’t increase—revenues dropped by half. Some hospitals even bought a grand piano for the lobby. What, healing through music now?

Over the past five years, 200 hospitals went bankrupt. The five years before that? Only seven. Hospitals are lining up like dominos, waiting to fall.

Medical staff are suffering too. A nurse named Yang Nana, working in a Zhejiang public hospital for 12 years, just got her first-ever pay cut. No more meal subsidies, no more free water, and even the light bulbs in her department are flickering out.

One hospital invested 120 million yuan ($17 million) in a new building to achieve top-tier hospital status. Then COVID hit. Patients vanished. Revenue was slashed in half. Now they can’t even pay salaries.

The government is scrambling to cut costs. They’ve introduced centralized drug procurement, driving prices down—but now people worry about drug quality. More and more patients are turning to local clinics and telemedicine—hospitals are starting to feel... obsolete.

And young people? They’re just ditching health insurance altogether. If treatment is expensive and insurance doesn’t cover much, why bother paying for it? Some are opting for high-end health checkups instead.

So, where does this end? A Tsinghua professor predicts that at this rate, China’s health insurance fund will run dry in ten years. The government is already raising the retirement age and cutting healthcare spending, but this is just the beginning.

In the future, don’t be surprised if hospital signs read:

“Bring your own water, negotiate doctor fees, and room-sharing discounts available.”