Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers with a population of 1.35 billion, China is the world's second-largest country by land and the largest country by population. Knowing this, healthcare must be one of the most important issues in China. As China becomes more populated, there is becoming a greater need for health care professionals, quality health care facilities, technological improvements, and most importantly a proper amount of funding to support a successful health care system. However, recently, China has been struggling in regards to health care. There has been a widening gap in health status between urban and rural residents, correlated with increasing gaps in income and health care utilization. There have also been drastic changes in health care financing, including a dramatic reduction of insurance cover for the rural population. In 1949, the Chinese government took complete control of the healthcare system. Under the Chinese government, the country’s officials, rather than local governments largely determined access to health care. Referring to an article, “Equity in Health and Health Care: The Chinese Experience”, written in the Social Science and Medicine Journal, Yuanli Liu, William Hsiao, and Karen Eggleston exaggerate that the rural areas were in the biggest need for a healthcare reform during the late 1940s era. The authors explain (1999) “The Rural Cooperative Medical System (RCMS) was established as a three-tier system for rural healthcare access. The RCMS functioned on a pre-payment plan that consisted of individual income contribution, a village Collective Welfare Fund, and subsidies from higher government” (p.1349). The first tier consisted of barefoot doctors that were trained in basic hygiene and traditional Chinese medicine. This system of barefoot doctors was the easiest form of healthcare access, especially in rural