Heart stents in China: how a national program cut the implant price by 93%
The ¥700 stent is real
In 2021 China's national healthcare security administration ran centralized procurement for coronary stents, cutting the average implant price from roughly ¥13,000 to about ¥700 — a 93% drop. By 2024, more than 3.7 million patients had received these stents, which account for over 95% of all stents used in China. The devices are the same drug-eluting stents made by major manufacturers; what collapsed was the distribution margin, not the quality.
What a PCI costs all-in
With the implant now a minor line item, a typical stent procedure (PCI) in a regular department — angiography, the operation, one or two stents, a short hospital stay — commonly totals in the tens of thousands of yuan, roughly ¥20,000–50,000 (US$2,800–7,000) depending on case complexity and the number of stents. Before procurement reform, the implants alone could cost more than that. As always on this site: budget at the top of the range, and treat the final number as something your doctor's treatment plan determines.
Stent or bypass is a medical decision — not ours
Whether your arteries need stents, bypass surgery, or medication alone is a decision for cardiologists with your angiogram in hand — no website can or should make it. What we provide is the administrative layer: where the top cardiac centers are, what each path costs, and how to get your records in front of the right department.
Source: National Healthcare Security Administration: 3.7M patients chose procured stents · Shenzhen News: stents from ¥13,000 to hundreds of yuan