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In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

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21–30 of 116 posts

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#21
post #9

Well you can hire a software engineer in India for $10/hr. I think cost of living should have been at least mentioned in this article.

Standard IT service company entry level SE salary is ~ INR 25000/month -> INR 830/day =~ $15, now divide it by 9 and it comes down to ~ $1.7/hr. Of course this is fresher salary and at a services company like Infosys, TCS, Wipro etc.

If you start with a product development(that means just fixing bugs in almost all the cases) company or some of the startup(such jobs are quite few) then the monthly salary can be sth from INR 40K to 60-70K(I'm giving an average range, it can be higher too) so that comes down to ~ $25 to $42 per day or ~ $3 to $5 per hour.

What you mention, $10/hr, is earned by either very very experienced ones at a services company(managerial level - never bloody ever someone who writes code or even reads code) or good lead/senior level engineers at other companies in their last phase of coding life cycle. It is translated as ~ INR 150,000 per month which is quite some amount here, still.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#22
post #3

So cheap it almost makes me feel like having heart surgery just to know I didn't miss out on a great offer.

I live near Manipal Hospital in Bangalore and had to stay with a friend in there, thrice in last 6-7 months. Maybe he likes it there too and I often go to their cafeteria(outside) which is cheap and good.

I meet so many foreigners here. I've talked to them; they simply say it's very good - service, expertise - and it's a f*ing loot! And no, this is no such no-frills hospital. So, if you are from a western country and earning even decent money then you are welcome to India and any hospital/hotel/place might make you feel like royalty - mostly without compromising in quality.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#23
Another worthy mention is state-run Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research[0]; a Bangalore based hospital that provides state-of-the-art and affordable heart related healthcare services[1].

[0]http://www.jayadevacardiology.com/achievements.html

[1]http://www.jayadevacardiology.com/procedure_charges.html

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#24
post #9

Well you can hire a software engineer in India for $10/hr. I think cost of living should have been at least mentioned in this article.

Inflation is increasing the cost of living in India and China. A decent apartment (not luxury) will cost you min. $100K in any Indian city (even C and D tier cities) While not as expensive as Manhattan or London, relative to Indian salaries everything is getting expensive.

Agree.

I'm looking for a flat to invest in and I am finding them out of reach, even after taking housing loan and they are running away from me a lot faster than I can catch up, besides, I've already started to pant :( (meaning the salary going to other holes in significant portions)

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#25
post #21
post #9

Well you can hire a software engineer in India for $10/hr. I think cost of living should have been at least mentioned in this article.

Standard IT service company entry level SE salary is ~ INR 25000/month -> INR 830/day =~ $15, now divide it by 9 and it comes down to ~ $1.7/hr. Of course this is fresher salary and at a services company like Infosys, TCS, Wipro etc. If you start with a product development(that means just fixing bugs in almost all the cases) company or some of the startup(such jobs are quite few) then the monthly salary can be sth fr…

That includes medical insurance for you and your family. If you are willing to travel you can get good house for rent at INR 10K month. I pay INR 6k for 1500 sqft house and my previous office is 7 km from my house. You can do rest of the math to figure out how somebody getting $25 per day can live comfortable life. Anything above $25 is bonus.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#26
post #9

Well you can hire a software engineer in India for $10/hr. I think cost of living should have been at least mentioned in this article.

I agree with your point but those $10 engineers are probably living in a shitty shared apartment in Bangalore. He doesn't have 24/7 water. Works few times a week. When he does, he has to go down his apartment to fetch it. He doesn't go to fancy restaurants. He doesn't have a dish washer or an AC or any other fancy stuff. And whole of $10 is probably not reaching him if he works for a company (It's usually $3-4/hour that he actually gets).

India is a place where a frugal lifestyle is extremely cheap. $400/month is easy for a single person.

At the same time a luxurious quality lifestyle (probably the same as the "average" in the first world) is actually higher than usual, same cars cost twice as much, electronics are always late and usually pricier, movies and nice restaurants are about the same, broadband internet is very pricy and I can go on.

I think we should keep in mind "cost of similar quality living"

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#27
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are India's drugs cheaper? Is their patent system different than in the US? Or does the government dictate the price drugs can be sold at?

what patents?

If you are referring to now-a-days somewhat popular belief that India doesn't respect patents or has no patent system then I am humbly requesting you to do a little bit of research and you'll find out that it's very very far from the truth.

It's just that it doesn't grant a patent on A because the patent of C expired and the company decided to call it A or if rejected then applied again by calling it B.

jm2c.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#28

Are they releasing any patient follow up statistics? It'd be interesting to compare their post-op complication stats to some of the 'overpriced' facilities.

Well, they haven't heard any complaints so far!!

Edit: Makes me guess, but what if their success rate is higher than the high priced facilities...

Oh and I would absolutely go for medical tourism. Beyond not being overcharged by the procedure, I wouldn't be pushed the "latest drugs" with debatable results or in a case where the latest drug is needed, it would be avaiable at a lower cost.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#29
post #5

Couple this with a medical insurance system and you'll have a copy-paste model for pretty much every development country (and the United States cough )

Good luck with the ambulance chasing lawyers in the US. Also, India's drugs are cheaper.

Of course their drugs are cheaper, if drugs companies won't sell to them at huge discounts, India ignores the patents and produces the drugs themselves. Consequently, the US subsidizes their drugs, insofar as they do not contribute to the costs of R&D, including research and clinical trials for working and failed drugs.

If every country adopts that policy, which is the direction things are headed because it's the dominant strategy, the rate of medical advancement will be much lower. To quantify, about 58% of US medical funding is provided by private industry. Pharmaceuticals alone spend more than the NIH. NIH in the US spends 29 times more than NHS in the UK on health research, despite having only 6 times more people. The US spends 4 times more per capita than Australia on medical research. This is one of the two gigantic elephants in the healthcare debate auditorium, the other being patient outcomes for comparable patients. Of course US aggregate data is skewed because of the general health of the population (fatness), and those without insurance, but what happens when comparing patient outcomes between people with insurance in the US, with people that are comparably healthy (i.e. fatness and related issues) in other countries. The whole thing is basically a health-and-wealth transfer scheme from the insured to the uninsured.

We see basically the same thing whenever space research is discussed. Pompous Europeans bash US progress and "meager space funding", while the US outspends the entire world combined over 3 to 1 on space research. In the end, the "solution" to both is to cut spending to both medical and space research to global per-capita levels, and let the advanced research go undone, unless other countries choose to start contributing. Of course, that would be a true tragedy of the commons.

Re: In India, 'no frills' hospitals offer $800 heart surgery

#30
post #25
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standard IT service company entry level SE salary is ~ INR 25000/month -> INR 830/day =~ $15, now divide it by 9 and it comes down to ~ $1.7/hr. Of course this is fresher salary and at a services company like Infosys, TCS, Wipro etc. If you start with a product development(that means just fixing bugs in almost all the cases) company or some of the startup(such jobs are quite few) then the monthly salary can be sth fr…

That includes medical insurance for you and your family. If you are willing to travel you can get good house for rent at INR 10K month. I pay INR 6k for 1500 sqft house and my previous office is 7 km from my house. You can do rest of the math to figure out how somebody getting $25 per day can live comfortable life. Anything above $25 is bonus.

If you are referring to me then I know all this, being a resident.

But yes, the GP commenter might find it useful. In a city like Bangalore it still is a shoe-string budget and I can say this with authority as a 26+ yr old bachelor living in a one bedroom flat.

I was just commenting on his assumption/observation that we get $10/hr in general :-)

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