<story><title>Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-28/heart-surgery-in-india-for-1-583-costs-106-385-in-u-s-.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seanmcdirmid</author><text>&amp;gt; A doctor trained in India is no less qualified than a doctor trained in the US.&lt;p&gt;In general?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/shocking-facts-about-primary-health-care-in-india-and-their-implications&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blogs.worldbank.org&amp;#x2F;developmenttalk&amp;#x2F;shocking-facts-ab...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It’s also pretty staggering that hiring qualified staff doesn’t appear to increase this probability. Das and colleagues suggest that part of the issue might be the variation in the quality of instruction in Indian medical training institutions. So there may be some institutions from which a qualification does make a difference. But given the paper’s results, the effect of such institutions must be rather small. The fact that providers working in better equipped facilities don’t have a higher probability of prescribing the right treatment is also alarming.&lt;p&gt;Obviously, heart surgery isn&amp;#x27;t rocket science, and our medical training is a bit overpriced, but is it so easy to compare two disjoint systems?</text></item><item><author>DigitalSea</author><text>The first supposed fact thrown around in the medical costs argument like this is, &amp;quot;Well in India their cost of living is lower, so they charge considerably less, yadda yadda...&amp;quot; but it&amp;#x27;s obvious the price difference goes way beyond any cost of living gap. That&amp;#x27;s over $100,000 in price difference, while it is true the cost of living (salary, prices of every day items) in India is considerably less than that of the US, the gap certainly isn&amp;#x27;t 100k+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s comparisons like these that really make you sick to your stomach. You don&amp;#x27;t see this kind of innovation in the American health system because it has been engineered with greed in mind right from the start. The lobbyist super groups, hospitals being paid kickbacks for using an exclusive medical equipment provider, the money hungry mentality of US medical corporations is more than obvious.&lt;p&gt;I think when your medical system becomes so expensive it&amp;#x27;s cheaper for people to fly out of the country, pay for accommodation and even some spending money to get the same level of care, if not higher than that of your own country, regardless of cost of living differences and other nation specific costs that&amp;#x27;s absolutely ridiculous. By the sounds of it, India is going to be the new global superpower if more and more people fly there to pay for medical treatment it benefits their economy in the end (given how a substantial chunk of the population is below the poverty line, this might not be such a bad thing).&lt;p&gt;A doctor trained in India is no less qualified than a doctor trained in the US. So expertise or training is no excuse either. In-fact I&amp;#x27;ve found Indian trained specialists to be more thorough, careful, understanding and compassionate in comparison to that of Australian trained medical professionals (I&amp;#x27;m from Australia). When was the last time you saw or heard of a poor American medical specialist or surgeon?&lt;p&gt;The question is: Will America ever change their ways? Or will quality medical care only be reserved for those who can afford decent medical insurance or have jobs that provide fair medical benefits?&lt;p&gt;One thing is for certain, this is submission is going to garner a lot of responses from both sides of the fence if past submissions along these lines are anything to go by.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crntaylor</author><text>That article doesn&amp;#x27;t actually compare India to the US. In fact, it says that &amp;quot;It’s also likely the results aren’t India-specific.&amp;quot; It would be interesting to see the results of a similar study carried out in the US or UK, for example.&lt;p&gt;In any case, there is a difference between the general level of competency of doctors in a given country, and the level of competency available to wealthy foreigners travelling to the country for medical tourism.</text></comment>
<story><title>Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-28/heart-surgery-in-india-for-1-583-costs-106-385-in-u-s-.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seanmcdirmid</author><text>&amp;gt; A doctor trained in India is no less qualified than a doctor trained in the US.&lt;p&gt;In general?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/shocking-facts-about-primary-health-care-in-india-and-their-implications&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blogs.worldbank.org&amp;#x2F;developmenttalk&amp;#x2F;shocking-facts-ab...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It’s also pretty staggering that hiring qualified staff doesn’t appear to increase this probability. Das and colleagues suggest that part of the issue might be the variation in the quality of instruction in Indian medical training institutions. So there may be some institutions from which a qualification does make a difference. But given the paper’s results, the effect of such institutions must be rather small. The fact that providers working in better equipped facilities don’t have a higher probability of prescribing the right treatment is also alarming.&lt;p&gt;Obviously, heart surgery isn&amp;#x27;t rocket science, and our medical training is a bit overpriced, but is it so easy to compare two disjoint systems?</text></item><item><author>DigitalSea</author><text>The first supposed fact thrown around in the medical costs argument like this is, &amp;quot;Well in India their cost of living is lower, so they charge considerably less, yadda yadda...&amp;quot; but it&amp;#x27;s obvious the price difference goes way beyond any cost of living gap. That&amp;#x27;s over $100,000 in price difference, while it is true the cost of living (salary, prices of every day items) in India is considerably less than that of the US, the gap certainly isn&amp;#x27;t 100k+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s comparisons like these that really make you sick to your stomach. You don&amp;#x27;t see this kind of innovation in the American health system because it has been engineered with greed in mind right from the start. The lobbyist super groups, hospitals being paid kickbacks for using an exclusive medical equipment provider, the money hungry mentality of US medical corporations is more than obvious.&lt;p&gt;I think when your medical system becomes so expensive it&amp;#x27;s cheaper for people to fly out of the country, pay for accommodation and even some spending money to get the same level of care, if not higher than that of your own country, regardless of cost of living differences and other nation specific costs that&amp;#x27;s absolutely ridiculous. By the sounds of it, India is going to be the new global superpower if more and more people fly there to pay for medical treatment it benefits their economy in the end (given how a substantial chunk of the population is below the poverty line, this might not be such a bad thing).&lt;p&gt;A doctor trained in India is no less qualified than a doctor trained in the US. So expertise or training is no excuse either. In-fact I&amp;#x27;ve found Indian trained specialists to be more thorough, careful, understanding and compassionate in comparison to that of Australian trained medical professionals (I&amp;#x27;m from Australia). When was the last time you saw or heard of a poor American medical specialist or surgeon?&lt;p&gt;The question is: Will America ever change their ways? Or will quality medical care only be reserved for those who can afford decent medical insurance or have jobs that provide fair medical benefits?&lt;p&gt;One thing is for certain, this is submission is going to garner a lot of responses from both sides of the fence if past submissions along these lines are anything to go by.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>arjie</author><text>For what it&amp;#x27;s worth, there&amp;#x27;s a huge range of private care in India. From expensive hospitals that cater primarily to the upper class to charlatans without a degree holed away in a slum.&lt;p&gt;The difference between these two ends is incredible. While I can imagine these results at the latter, I find them hard to believe at the former. I&amp;#x27;m paywalled away from this for the next two weeks, so if you want the facts, that&amp;#x27;s where I&amp;#x27;d look: what sort of private healthcare.&lt;p&gt;Edit: To illustrate, another commenter has a link to an news story that says mortality is lower after the Indian procedure - &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.theaustralian.com.au/archive/business-old/the-henry-ford-of-heart-surgery-devi-shettys-business-model-delivers-cheap-medical-care/story-e6frg90x-1225801548287&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;m.theaustralian.com.au&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;business-old&amp;#x2F;the-henry...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>