Patients would pay all drug costs above $5,000 a year.

The three other patients in the room paid no attention.

Patients in China today generally must pay their own health care costs.

Only 13 percent think that the patient alone should pay for care.

But while these drugs cost less, patients, and not insurance companies, must pay for them.

For a $10,000 hospital stay, though, a patient would pay only 5% of the cost.

In more than half the cases, patients pay the bills out of their own resources.

Patients sometimes pay more than 60 percent of what the hospital receives.

In either case, patients would pay no premiums and little for treatment.

For example, a patient with a hospital bill of $1,000 might typically pay $200.