China’s health-care system was modeled after the Soviet one. However, I do not follow my physician’s advice to the letter. My doctor and I have an informal gentleman’s agreement: When I have a fever, I’ll call you; when I don’t, I won’t bother you, and you won’t bother me either. I believe that if I go a whole year without seeking his help, that reflects well on him. But if I were to see him every month, it would suggest his work is falling short. I take my doctor’s recommendations with a grain of salt—halfheartedly—and expect him to listen to me half the time. If one were to obey the doctor completely, one would end up with all sorts of ailments and might not live long. In the past, we didn’t hear about so many cases of hypertension or hepatitis; today, they are widespread. It may be that doctors have simply uncovered more of these conditions. After all, if a person remains sedentary, merely enjoying good food, fine clothing, comfortable housing, and traveling by car instead of walking, illness is bound to follow. Being overly pampered in terms of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation constitutes four major factors contributing to illness among senior cadres. Our health-care system, which was borrowed from the Soviet model, has turned specialized physicians into generalists who fail to diagnose and treat a diverse array of diseases. This approach is flawed and needs to be improved.