Rudimentary health care provided by an army of “barefoot doctors” was free to villagers before the economic reforms of the last three decades, with financial support from rural collectives. The rural household responsibility system (family unit-based agricultural production) of the post-reform era eliminated the financial bases for maintaining the services of these rural health-care workers. As a result, rural households now incur greater out-of-pocket expenses for health services (Grigoriou, Guillaumont and Yang, 2005).