India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care • Hacker News Board

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#61

Post by allpratik » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:09 PM UTC

Until the details are revealed, I won't buy this. It seems to have been introduced to take advantage of upcoming elections.

The reason I'm skeptical about this step is because there are simply no specific blueprint whatsoever. And with recent government implementations, their biggest failure turns out to be ambiguity. Good example is GST. After it's launch several month's ago, almost every big/small industry is finding it hard to get the specific details.

I highly doubt about government's ability to implement it. This insurance should have been given on basis of economical standing. Choosing a random 500M number is good for making headlines but again it is not clear on who will gain this insurance benefits?, what will be covered?, how to claim it? I foresee, "divide and rule" :p

On another note, please have a look at Sensex. It's near all time high. The reason behind such rally is not FII but DII. Infact, FII has actively removed over $20Bn since 2015. There was slight influx of FII money post two months of demonetisation but again outflow increased in following months. But still Sensex didn't crashed because of the counter balance from DII or read it as mostly mutual fund companies. Also, I had noticed an increased expenditure in mutual fund investment ads on TV and almost all types of media. And these ads were sponsored mostly by govt bodies and associations. There is nothing wrong to invest in mutual funds. But when I heard about long term and short term capital gains tax today, things got much clearer for me as to why DII raised some much cash in very short period of time. To check the validity of above numbers, you can refer to sensex related stats on moneycontrol.com and check out the YoY sensex FII/DII activity. It has a very well explanatory chart about it.

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#62

Post by allpratik » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:11 PM UTC

ethagknight wrote: post #7

>> The health care plan, part of the government’s 2018-19 budget presented on Thursday, would offer 100 million families up to 500,000 rupees, or about $7,860, of coverage each year. Thats roughly $800B dollars, or over 30% of India's GDP. What am I missing? Most people won't participate? EDIT: according to the article, the Finance Ministry has allocated $314 million (or 4 hundredths of a percent of the theoretical m…

nothing else, this is just another election carrot. The whole point was to make headlines. India giving health benefits to 500M!

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#63

Post by toomuchtodo » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

alok-g wrote: post #53

empath75 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If this program is to be rolled out a national scale, the govt. needs to address the systematic corruption in the healthcare industry first. I think it depends on how much corruption is tolerable when trying to achieve such an important goal.

Corruption in India is high by default. Just like security often can't be an after-thought in software development, anything new in India should not leave anti-corruption measures as an after-thought.

Watsi.org has made great strides in detecting and removing corruption from its healthcare delivery pipeline.

I wonder if there’s a consulting/contracting opportunity for them here.

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#64

Post by whack » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

A key paragraph from the article which better explains the finances behind this policy:

"The health care plan ... would offer 100 million families up ... $7,860, of coverage each year. That sum, while small by Western standards, would be enough to cover the equivalent of five heart surgeries in India."

It's much easier to provide universal healthcare, when medical costs are low. Finding ways to bring down costs in the US, would go a long way towards improving the healthcare situation here.

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#65

Post by tyfon » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:17 PM UTC

vidarh wrote: post #35

mickelsen wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily a counterpoint but Chile's dual system -private and public, both with copay for most- gives them a life expectancy of 81.79 years, surpassing a lot of more developed countries with free universal healthcare.

Almost every universal healthcare system is has some degree of mix of private and public. Norway is on the far extreme with it's strict restrictions on private healthcare. Almost every other country has private healthcare insurance as at least an option. The question tends to be how much you end up contributing towards public healthcare if you take out a private option - ranging from no difference (you pay the same t…

Strict restrictions? I can chose whatever hospital I want and the government will pay for it regardless as long as a GP has referred me to them. If you want you can just pay out of your pocket as well without going through a GP.

There is even a portal where you can search for your ailment and choose hospital (private or public) based on their waiting lists.

https://helsenorge.no/velg-behandlingssted

The government also buys up a lot of the private spots to reduce public waiting lists. Last time I was in due to sinus infection, I went to a private and a public clinic both paid for in full by the government.

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#66

Post by IanDrake » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:21 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #55

IanDrake wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article, there already is free healthcare provided by the government. The problem is that model, predictably, sucks. “Although government-run hospitals are theoretically free for everyone, the waits are long, quality is poor and corruption is endemic.” So the left doesn’t want private healthcare providers to show them up.

"The left" makes me curious who you're referring to. Billing fraud is of course a problem with private health-care providers as well.

Strange that you don’t know “the left” means, but here you go...

http://slideplayer.com/slide/726731/2/images/1/The+Political...

I didn’t say billing fraud was a problem with government run healthcare, so I fail to understand the “as well” part of your statement.

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#67

Post by jimjimjim » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:23 PM UTC

IanDrake wrote: post #50

horsecaptin wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the current government conservative and pro-business? If the are the ones implementing free healthcare, then why should the leftist opposition want to remove it? I bet they'll try to undermine it at every stage well before they ever get power. That will make it easy to kill or fix it when they do get power back.

According to the article, there already is free healthcare provided by the government. The problem is that model, predictably, sucks. “Although government-run hospitals are theoretically free for everyone, the waits are long, quality is poor and corruption is endemic.” So the left doesn’t want private healthcare providers to show them up.

why did you say 'the left'? why do you see the world as two opposing sides?

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#68

Post by shripadk » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:24 PM UTC

allpratik wrote: post #61

Until the details are revealed, I won't buy this. It seems to have been introduced to take advantage of upcoming elections. The reason I'm skeptical about this step is because there are simply no specific blueprint whatsoever. And with recent government implementations, their biggest failure turns out to be ambiguity. Good example is GST. After it's launch several month's ago, almost every big/small industry is findi…

> Good example is GST. After it's launch several month's ago, almost every big/small industry is finding it hard to get the specific details.

I don't get what problems does industry have with regards to GST apart from simpler return filing and changes in rates. The implementation was itself smoother than expected. Just compare with other countries that implemented GST and you'll realise that it took almost 2 years for things to stabilize. Comparatively, the implementation and addressal of most issues took only few months! Today, Hasmukh Adhia also hinted at automatic preparation of GST returns and simplification of invoice entry by directly entering details into the system which is pretty amazing if you ask me. I'm actually quite happy with how GST has shaped. Especially when compared to other governmental bodies which have error prone systems. I have faced no issues filing GSTR-3B returns and with simplification of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 I guess all worries are taken care of.

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#69

Post by yesforwhat » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

whack wrote: post #64

A key paragraph from the article which better explains the finances behind this policy: "The health care plan ... would offer 100 million families up ... $7,860, of coverage each year. That sum, while small by Western standards, would be enough to cover the equivalent of five heart surgeries in India." It's much easier to provide universal healthcare, when medical costs are low. Finding ways to bring down costs in th…

China, too

Re: India Wants to Give Half a Billion People Free Health Care

#70

Post by jimjimjim » Thu, Feb 01, 2018, 7:28 PM UTC

in a lot of countries having a government provided health care system (with private if you wish to pay more for quicker/better) is Normal rather than a political idea that only 1 side is allowed to support.