The projects seek to reverse a decline in grassroots medical care since a high point reached in the early decades of Maoist rule. When the communes had gone, many medical insurance schemes funded by the collective system collapsed, and some local medical workers had to support themselves instead by charging patients. Today's peasants must pay most of the fees for childbirth. A birth in the county hospital, with better hygiene and heating, costs twice as much. Some insurance schemes have either survived or have been restored in Anhui, but the extent of benefits varies widely.
Growth charts show that none of the village's children are under-sized.
Great Hill has spent less on building new houses and more on infrastructure for the collective good. Running water is piped from the hills and pumped through the village at fixed times of day. The hospital scheme in Zhongxi township gets one quarter of its income from the local villages. The rest comes from money provided by a foreign-funded local factory to insure its workforce. Much progress has clearly been made in rural health in the last decade, at least in those trial areas, and, with a life expectancy of 71 and countrywide provision of basic services, China compares favourably with many other large developing countries.