By Amine Mechaal
Rabat - With a horse-head helmet and a sign reading: “Five yuan ($0.80) per ride. Good Samaritans, please ride on me,” a 38-year-old Chinese father tries to raise money for his sick son in the streets of China.
Since last Wednesday, Chinese social media has been shedding light on Chen Yuntao after he offered rides-for-money to passengers on a street in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province – China. The reason he begs for money is to pay off the medical bills and the hospital fees of his nine-year-old son who suffers from Leukaemia.
Chen lives and works in the village of Bozhou where he is a construction worker and earns a total of 2,000 yuan ($320) per month, which is not sufficient to cover every day expenses or to pay for his son’s medications and hospital fees.
According to a local newspaper, the Jianghuai Morning Post, Chen’s son was diagnosed with Leukaemia in December of 2011. Since then, Chen has been struggling with the increasing debt that he owes to the banks and to his relatives.
"We’ve spent more than 200,000 yuan ($32,300) in order to save my son. Now I owe debts of 160,000 yuan ($25,843)," Chen told the Jianghuai Morning Post. “(We) can reimburse 90 percent of the fees from (medical insurance for) serious illnesses, but I still need about 50,000 yuan ($8,076),” Chen explained.
The healthcare costs in Chinese hospitals are very expensive. Although there have been continuous reforms in the health care field, many citizens still find it hard to have access to health insurance and medical facilities in China.
Pictures' credit: CCTV channel
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