Medical treatments · Overview
Treatments in China: how we price them, and what we refuse to price
If you are considering treatment in China, the hard question is rarely “is it cheaper?” It is “what will this actually cost me, and what am I not being told?” China publishes real prices for some procedures — and nothing usable for others. This page shows the method we use to tell those apart, and links every category.
The method
Three tiers, and the rule that never bends
Every number on this site has a publisher, a date and a working link. When those three exist, we print the number and label its tier. When they do not, we print the reason we have no number — which is more useful than a borrowed range, and the only version of this job that survives a fact-check.
Official pricing
Government price documents: caps, bulk-purchase results, provincial price schedules. The strongest evidence that exists. Examples: the dental-implant service-fee cap, intraocular-lens purchase prices, imaging re-pricing.
Published statistics
Hospital price lists published under China’s price-publicity rules, and industry-body statistics. Real numbers, narrower scope — a hospital list describes that hospital, not a nation.
No sourced figure
We publish no number, explain why, and give you the method instead: the anatomy of the bill and the questions that make two quotes comparable.
Category by category
What we can anchor, per treatment type
One verified number per category — the anchor — and a link to the full page.
| Category | Sourced anchor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Dental implants | Service fee capped at ≤¥4,500 per implant in public hospitals; implant system ¥548–1,855; crown ¥100–656. Routine case on average parts ≈ ¥5,700. | Level A · NHSA |
| Cataract lenses | National bulk purchase cut lens prices by an average of 60%; mainstream monofocal model from ¥2,500 to ≈¥800; premium trifocal to ≈¥8,900. | Level A · NHSA |
| Imaging (CT / MRI) | Under the national re-pricing, provinces completing it have cut CT to around ¥200 and MRI to around ¥500; published hospital lists show CT ¥286–290, MRI ¥500–550. | Level A / B |
| Health checkups | Four public-hospital price lists: entry packages ¥360–1,500, full packages ¥2,000–4,600, VIP ¥4,800–8,600. | Level B · hospital lists |
| Laser vision correction | No sourced national figure on either side of the Pacific. The page gives the bill’s anatomy and the four-line quote request instead. US reference point: ARSC average $4,492 both eyes. | Level C / B |
| Cosmetic procedures | No sourced figures, published or withdrawn, on either side. The page gives the eight-line quote request and the licensing checks instead. | Level C |
Read the anchors with their scope. The implant figure is for a routine single implant in a tertiary public hospital. The lens figure is the consumable only. The imaging figure is per region, plain study, no contrast. None of them is a quote for your case — they are the floor of verifiable fact under the page.
The structural difference
Why China’s prices can be published at all
Public-hospital prices in China are not set store by store. The National Healthcare Security Administration runs national bulk purchases for high-value consumables, caps and governs key service fees, and issues item-structure guidelines that each province implements as a provincial price schedule. Hospitals then publish item prices under price-publicity rules. The result: for an increasing share of care, the price of the thing is a matter of public record before you are ever a patient.
The United States arrives at the opposite structure from the same freedom: prices are negotiated insurer by insurer, facility by facility, and no national body publishes averages for most procedures. The largest claims database sells postcode lookups instead of printing figures. Neither system is better care — one is simply more legible from the outside, and legibility is what a cost guide needs.
Action
Getting a quote you can actually compare
Whichever category you are considering, the sequence is the same:
Decide what you are asking for in writing before asking for prices — the procedure, the technique, the product class. A quote without a fixed scope is an answer to a question nobody asked.
Professional fee, consumable, anaesthesia, facility, follow-ups — each as its own line. Bundled totals hide exactly the lines that vary between hospitals.
Put the consumable lines against the published anchors on this site. If a hospital’s implant-system line sits far above the published purchase range, you are paying for something — ask what.
One document, with the exclusions. Chat messages and verbal totals are not quotes; they are intentions.
Questions we get
Straight answers
Is medical care in China cheaper than in the US?
For the parts China regulates — consumables bought in bulk, capped service fees, item-priced imaging — the published figures are low by US list-price standards. But we publish no savings percentage, because the US side has no sourced average for most of these procedures, and a percentage built on an unsourced number is decoration. Compare scoped quotes instead; the anchors tell you when a quote is off.
Why won’t you just give me a number for my procedure?
If a sourced number existed, it would be on the category page. Where it does not, a number from us would be exactly the thing you should distrust on every other site. The quote method — scope, line items, anchors, writing — gets you a real number for your real case, which an average never was.
Do you book treatment or recommend hospitals?
No. We are an information project: no bookings, no commissions, no clinic lists. We read the price documents, translate the structures, and hand you the verification steps. See about us and the medical disclaimer for the boundaries we hold.
Where do I start if I’m planning a trip?
Pick your category above, get a written quote using that page’s questions, then read the travel guide for visas, records and payments, and hospitals in China for how to read tiers and licences. The order matters: the quote changes whether the trip makes sense at all.
Sources & method
The anchor documents
The Level A figures cited above come from these three official documents. Category pages carry their own full source lists.
Have a quote in hand?
Send it over and we will tell you what it leaves out, in plain English. No referral fee, no clinic recommendation, no sales call.