The name barefoot doctor refers to farmers who would work barefoot in the rice paddies, and who, along with an idealistic young population instituted by Mao Zedong, brought rudimentary health care to Chinese living in the countryside. With only basic medical and pharmacological training, the grass-roots healthcare movement was able to tend to common illnesses, offer preventive health care, promote family planning, and basic hygiene. Over the past six decades, China has been experimenting with radically different forms of healthcare for the best ways to administer healthcare to its ever-sizable population.
