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Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

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Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#61

Post by teeboy »

jmspring wrote: post #45
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A doctor trained in India is no less qualified than a doctor trained in the US. In general? http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/shocking-facts-ab... > 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…

If their doctors are trained like the bulk of their it professionals -- those hired by the body shops, no thanks. At least from what I've seen, countries that make a business iut of pudging grad numbers hoping for expat acceptance, quality is inversely proportional to quantity. Within the US, the cost of heart surgery is highly variable, but if I were to go international, i would go south/central America over India a…

The Doctors and Engineers from the best institutes of India are comparable to the best in the world. You will regularly meet them in American or European hospitals anyways doing consulting. It's a poor comparison. Some of the hospitals in India are comparable to any top-class hospitals in the world. In the end, you will be visiting such a hospital in India, not small time ones.

Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#62

Post by stephencanon »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #36
bayesianhorse wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read about this clinic somewhere else, and there it was said this clinic actually outperforms western clinics in terms of complications, which seems to be achieved through staggering case numbers per doctor.

That makes sense: experience increases performance, which is why we have intensive residencies; there is a reason why until recently residents were working 80+ hours a week. Perhaps we should ship all our resident-ready medical students off to third world countries where the needs are great so they can become proficient very quickly. Perhaps our system has become too soft.

Our residents do work 80+ hour weeks. Until recently, it was 100+ hours.

Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#64

Post by msonawane »

DigitalSea wrote: post #9

The first supposed fact thrown around in the medical costs argument like this is, "Well in India their cost of living is lower, so they charge considerably less, yadda yadda..." but it's obvious the price difference goes way beyond any cost of living gap. That'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,…

"Well in India their cost of living is lower"

I am not sure it is true anymore. If you compare cost of living in a good infrastructure or similar lifestyle you will find India is expensive. I am sure many will disagree but just go ahead and look at cost of decent housing in any Indian metro. We too have crap doctors in India like anywhere else, may be they don't sound too expensive when you go by USD conversion.

Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#65

Post by carbocation »

I can assure you that the doctors doing 1-2 CABGs per day are not making $30M-$70M/year.

Alas I don't know how much the hospital takes, but I know that there are ~500,000 CABGs per year. I suspect that we as a nation are not spending $50 billion annually on CABGs, but I could be off.

Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#66

Post by smky80 »

DigitalSea wrote: post #9

The first supposed fact thrown around in the medical costs argument like this is, "Well in India their cost of living is lower, so they charge considerably less, yadda yadda..." but it's obvious the price difference goes way beyond any cost of living gap. That'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,…

> so expensive it's cheaper for people to fly out of the country, pay for accommodation and even some spending money

... and even a few years of college tuition or a small mortgage ...

Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#68

Post by barking »

koralatov wrote: post #55
barking wrote: post #25

In my country I know of a hepatologist who claims to have seen higher than normal rates of hepatitis B amongst people who have travelled to lower cost countries for dental treatment. One country was mentioned in particular (not India as it happens).

Your comment left out the single most important piece of information: the country in which the treatment took place. I have no plans, and thankfully no need, to go abroad for low-cost treatment of any sort, but someone reading your comment might, and the key fact you omitted might stop them making a horrible mistake.

I was tempted to mention it. But what I am writing is hearsay until such time as this doctor goes public with it, if he ever does that. If it's true it would cause a major controversy in the EU.

Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#69

Post by anonymoushn »

acchow wrote: post #58
pliny wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know much about the American healthcare system, but wouldn't it be the same incentive when selling any product? If you sell the same quality product for cheaper, you will get more business than your competitors. That's what competition in a free market is, no?

What free market? What prices? Free market from price shopping you say? You got hit riding your bike and are bleeding profusely from your abdomen. The ambulance driver asks, "There's a hospital 6 minutes away but they don't post their prices publicly (who does?) and we've never brought anyone of your condition there before. We think it will probably cost between $500-$10,000. But there's a hospital 45 minutes away th…

A large majority of medical care is not for people in imminent danger of dying. Even procedures for people with the time to shop around are vastly overpriced and do not have prices posted publicly.

Re: Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

#70

Post by Steko »

pravda wrote: post #14

It's not greed, it's a consequence of health insurance. Get rid of health insurance and prices would drop 10x.

"Get rid of health insurance"

... and people would start up health insurance again because it's absolutely needed. Silliest thing read on HN in weeks.

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