We know why China’s State Council just announced a $120 billion, 3-year plan to improve its health care system.

Most Chinese don’t have health insurance, and the system requires payment at the time of care, so tens—maybe hundreds of millions have been doing without since China’s economy was, well, developing.

And to the extent possible in a society where free speech isn’t, people are becoming a bit testy about that.

Besides, China’s government knows that citizens who are one medical event away from economic ruin aren’t going to be aggressive consumers, which must happen if its suddenly wobbly domestic economy is to stabilize.

(It’s either that or wait for the Americans to start spending and wouldn’t you know it? After decades of Relentless Xtreme Profligacy, those quirky Americans have put both hands in their pockets and threw in some super-glue.)

China’s government desperately needed to do something in health care even if the Hang Seng was still hanging-10. In 2006 for example, China spent less than 1% of its GDP on health care.

That puts China and its second largest economy in the world, in 156th place out of 196 countries surveyed for health spending by the World Health Organization, which is what Larry Gottlieb would call a travesty of a mockery.

The $120 billion equals 3% of China’s 2008 GDP. By comparison, America spends 17% of a GNP that’s twice as large as China’s on health care.

Details of the State Council program are nearly as sparse as those in a similar announcement made last October. The plan includes building new public hospitals, tuning up existing ones and improving access using networks of outpatient facilities. Other than that, who knows?

There are also plans to expand health insurance to 90% of China’s citizens by 2011, or one year later than that promised in the October release.

Welcome to the First World boys and girls!

When the Big O tapped Rahm Emanuel to be chief of staff, people thought it was because he’s good with a shiv.

Since then, the Clinton White House staffer and 3-term House member hasn’t exactly renounced his kneecapping style, but maybe he has toned it down a smidge.

Emanuel’s the guy who once said “the untainted Republican has not yet been invented” and that Republicans were “bad people who deserve a two-by-four upside their heads,” according to the New York Times.

But both colleagues and friends acknowledge the guy is trying to cool his jets, maybe even use less profanity.

That may be out of necessity because, as the Big O recounted during a 2005 Rahm roast, Emanuel lost some middle finger as a teenager while slicing beef at Arby’s, and it “rendered him practically mute.”

Regarding his demeanor in his new gig, Emanuel insists to the Times, “I’m not yelling at people; I’m not jumping on tables…that’s a campaign. Being the chief of staff…is different. You have different tools in your toolbox.”

No doubt he’s been busy. He helped select and court almost all members of the Big O’s cabinet and White House staff, and he’s in constant contact with Republicans, especially Top Gun.

Last week during a particularly hectic moment for Emanuel, Steny Hoyer claimed he was unable to get through to Emanuel so he called the president directly.

To which the Big O claimed he “was always happy to take calls for his chief of staff.”

College students that consumed more caffeine per day than that contained in 7 cups of Joe were 3 times more likely to have visual or auditory hallucinations than age-matched controls who consumed the equivalent of less than a cup a day.
 

Charles Fernyhough and his team from Durham University reached these conclusions after surveying 200 students about their intake of coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate bars and caffeine pills.

The scientists published their findings in Personality and Individual Differences.

The most common hallucinations were seeing things that weren’t there, hearing voices and feeling like dead people were nearby.
 
It’s anybody’s guess unfortunately, whether caffeine is the cause or the treatment of the hallucinations, according to Fernyhough who told the BurrilReport “One interpretation may be that those students who were more prone to hallucinations used caffeine to help cope with their experiences.”

What, to speed-up the hallucinations?
 
The scientists speculate that caffeine, if it indeed is causal, exacerbates the physiological effects of stress including the release of cortisol. The cortisol jolt is a reasonable proximate cause of hallucinations, they say.
 
Also, the scientists want you to know that your hallucinations don’t necessarily mean you have a mental illness. Most people experience brief episodes of hearing voices when no one’s around, they say.