Bullshit, I have been to a public Chinese hospital and all I got before paying was a tech hooking me up to an EKG to verify I wasn't actively having a heart attack.
Before I could see a doctor, I had to pay cash. I had to pay again to do the blood tests ordered by the doctor.
On Health Care Compensation: Methods of Allocation:
"The public may yet regard as commendable the Chinese custom of paying the physician only during the period health is maintained, all emoluments ceasing during sickness."
Albert Abrams, Nervous Breakdown, Hicks-Judd Company, San Francisco, 1901, p 5
Before I could see a doctor, I had to pay cash. I had to pay again to do the blood tests ordered by the doctor.