Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

globalpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 116 posts

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

#31

Post by areddy »

fakeer wrote: post #24
healthenclave wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

I visited China for a week. I felt China's inflation is horrible. Everything costs 1.5 to 3x more when compared to India.

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

#32

Post by areddy »

fakeer wrote: post #30
areddy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :-)

I just added more data to yours to just give an idea to others :)

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

#34

Post by toomuchtodo »

fakeer wrote: post #22
sgt wrote: 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 an…

Why is there no business in the US yet that matches healthcare consumers with these Indian operations? A healthcare travel agent if you will.

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

#35

Post by kitcar »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #34
fakeer wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

Why is there no business in the US yet that matches healthcare consumers with these Indian operations? A healthcare travel agent if you will.

There are; google "medical tourism" - that being said there is some potential liabilities in that business...

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

#36

Post by nairteashop »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #34
fakeer wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

Why is there no business in the US yet that matches healthcare consumers with these Indian operations? A healthcare travel agent if you will.

Oh, there is! Here's a list of such businesses (on the right side of the page): http://www.patientsbeyondborders.com/facilitator

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

#37

Post by yummyfajitas »

mschuster91 wrote: post #2

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 )

India has a medical insurance system. It's pretty simple, really - you pay actuarial cost + profit margin and it covers low probability high cost events.

Cost sharing induces patients to be price conscious, inducing downward pressure on prices. Most common procedures have prices listed on a sign, for less common stuff you need to ask the doctor for the price.

It doesn't usually cover birth control, psychologists, etc, nor is it a redistribution scheme in disguise.

The system works quite well. The rest of the world should learn from India.

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

#38

Post by mschuster91 »

jcnnghm wrote: post #29
vaadu wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dom…

Well, but the majority of new US medicine is just modified versions of old substances.

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

#39

Post by nairteashop »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #7
vaadu wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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?

It's both.

The Indian supreme court recently rejected Novartis' patent on Glivec, because the formulation wasn't different enough to merit a new patent (I don't know enough to know whether that was the right decision; just pointing out that the patent situation is different). The Indian government also has pricing restrictions on ~350 drugs deemed "essential".

On top of this, compared to the US, there's little to no drug marketing in India (yet). Plus lower labor/capital costs, etc.

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

#40

Post by jcnnghm »

mschuster91 wrote: post #38
jcnnghm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dom…

Well, but the majority of new US medicine is just modified versions of old substances.

Once the old substances patent expires, any drug company can produce generics. There is no incentive to ignore patents and produce generics if the patent is expired because other companies will likely be producing generics, assuming there is actually a market for the drug.
Post reply on HN