I recently discovered (so to speak) CGTN Radio, formerly known as China Radio International. Of course, I knew the CGTN mobile app, but I thought it’s only TV and news reports. It turned out that it also integrates the radio stream in English of China Radio International.

One evening, I was exploring the SW reception in Europe, and I found on 7255 kHz (41 m) a broadcast in English of China Radio International. There are transmitters targeting Europe, look here (for “Target: Europe”) and here (for the schedule). Of course, two hours a day and the inconvenience of using an SW radio isn’t everyone’s dream. But there’s a 24/7 stream in English that you can listen via VLC or MPC-HC: https://sk.cri.cn/am846.m3u8 (the AM 846 kHz station in Beijing doesn’t have a 24/7 stream in English, but this URL uses its moniker).

Much more convenient is to use the website or an app (Android on Google, Android directly, iOS). This way, you’ll be able to access the podcasts (which can also be found on several podcasts platforms). Here’s the latest episode of Chat Lounge, from Jan. 9: U.S. “death line”: 👉 U.S. “death line”: why are so many Americans just one crisis away from poverty?

The official blurb:

Recently, the term “U.S. death line” has been trending across Chinese social media. Originally a term from the gaming world, it’s now being used to describe the financial fragility haunting everyday Americans. Why are so many people in the U.S. just one crisis away from poverty? What does it tell us about the deep-seated institutional gaps in the country’s social safety net? Host Xu Yawen joins Prof. Li Lun, Assistant Professor of Economics at Peking University, and Prof. Josef Gregory Mahoney, Professor of Politics and International Relations at East China Normal University, for a chat.

(Why is it still called the Peking University when the official name for the city changed to Beijing decades ago?)

I only want to point your attention to the following excerpt:

13:26 to 15:00 The third thing is, in 2021, excuse me, 2020, I had gone back to the United States ahead of Christmas 2019 to see my parents for the holiday, and I got trapped in the US with the outbreak of COVID. And, because I am a permanent resident of China, I have health insurance in China. Because I was in an uncertain position in the US, I did not immediately acquire health insurance; I thought I might be able to get out. And I was also in very good health. Suddenly I developed what proved to be a kidney stone. And my parents live about 40 km outside of Memphis, Tennessee, which is not a very expensive place, so I had to seek emergency medical care from a hospital in North Memphis, a hospital that serves a low-income population. And all I got when I went to that hospital was a CT to confirm that I had a kidney stone and a prescription for painkillers to help me survive that difficult moment. Because I didn’t have US health insurance, I was given a “poverty rate,” a discounted rate. You want to take a guess what my bill was for a CT scan and a 5-minute consultation with the doctor? Do you want to guess how much that was? (Host: Probably over a thousand dollars?) It was 12,000 dollars!

15:40 There are two or three things here. The first is, there was a policy that was put in place that we call the “Affordable Care Act” that was put in place during the Obama administration. But what this law did was to require people to buy health insurance! With some support from the government. (Host: What’s the minimum down payment that you have to pay in order to get basic health care insurance?) Well, it varies. It varies by your age and your risk factors, and it also varies by where you live, and it varies in terms of what kind of deductible you will accept. So, will you accept a $500 deductible, a $1,000 deductible? What sort of coverage do you want? Up to 50,000, up to $100,000? So, there are a multitude of price points. And the cheaper policies generally require a deductible where, over the course of a year, you would have to exceed out-of-pocket payments of $500 or more before you would start to see benefits. Of course, one of the problems is that not all the procedures that you might get from your doctor, not all of them, might be covered by the policy. So there is some support for people through the Medicare and Medicaid programs, but this requires demonstrating a certain type of poverty, and this requires an extensive procedure a lot of people are not able to get or maintain these benefits. And through time these benefits have also declined in value. So there is no national health insurance, there is no reliable means for protecting, but, as I said before, the US has by far the highest cost per capita and also per GDP in the world when it comes to health care, but also the worst public support for those costs as a social safety net in the developed world.

Long live the American Dream!