People were now required to purchase health insurance, but 90 percent of the rural population couldn’t afford to pay; for the uninsured, one visit to the doctor could easily cost a poor family a third of their annual income.[32] Barefoot doctors’ work was abandoned because individuals weren’t willing to pay for preventative public health programs. Patients even had to pay doctors for vaccinations and, as a result, immunization rates fell to under 50 percent.[33] Infectious diseases surged, including measles, polio, TB and schistosomiasis.
