--- title: "America’s Health Care System Is So Screwed That Patients Are Flying to China for Cancer Treatment" description: "An experimental cancer treatment developed in the US has become a standalone industry in China, attracting throngs of medical tourists." date: "2026-09-13" modified: "2026-09-13" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/usa-health-care-system-medical-tourism-cancer-therapy-china" categories: - "Cancer" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Treatments" --- # America’s Health Care System Is So Screwed That Patients Are Flying to China for Cancer Treatment ![A patient undergoing radiation therapy.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* The myriad horrors of the US healthcare system have spawned [generations of]() [medical tourism]() from the wealthiest country on Earth to the periphery: Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Turkey, and Thailand, to name just a few. Now, Shanghai is quickly rising as one of the top destinations for cancer patients, as China's biotech sector has spun an experimental treatment developed in the US into a standalone industry. New reporting [by the *Wall Street Jo*]()*[urnal]()* took a look at this fast-growth industry, centered around chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T for short. CAR-T is essentially a personalized form of immunotherapy, in which a patient's own white blood cells are engineered to identify and attack specific proteins found in cancer cells. Though the process was first developed by [US biotech giants](), their inability — or unwillingness — to lower the cost and increase supply of the treatment has led to shortages throughout the country. That's where China comes in. As director of the CAR-T program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Sairah Ahmed told the *WSJ*, this therapy can cost around $150,000 to $230,000 in China — still a life-altering bill, but a sizeable discount compared to an insurmountable $550,000 to $850,000 in the US. This, Ahmed says, is why she advises some patients to seek out treatment in the People's Republic. "China has basically done to CAR-T cell therapy the same thing that it's done to other industries, which is, they've industrialized it," Ahmed explained. China's CAR-T services aren't just cheaper, either. They're also faster, and come with a host of complimentary after-care treatments, the *WSJ* notes. As MD Anderson Cancer Center's [explainer on CAR-T therapy]() advises, the process of extracting and bio-engineering a patient's cells to fight cancer can take over three weeks in the US. Compare that to China, where the *WSJ* reports labs near Shanghai can "crank out" the therapy in just a matter of days. An important caveat here is that CAR-T cell therapy isn't a catch-all for every type of cancer, and it's typically only administered after other treatments have failed. It's [not exactly a walk in the park](), either, requiring months of recovery and check-ups from a range of physical, neurological, and psychological health specialists. Still, if you had to go through with it, your first step should clearly be pricing out some flights to China. **More on healthcare:** *[Bougie Health Startups Offering Full-Body Diagnostic Scans for Rich People While the Rest of Us Suffer a Crumbling Healthcare System]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()