Heart surgery for $800?

[OldManEmu]

I have attached a link to an article where the busiest heart surgery group in the world, located in India is targeting getting the cost of heart surgery down to $800 for some procedures.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...tion-of-the-cost/story-fneuz9ev-1226625469519

 

[pellicle]

spotted that this morning. I thought "wow ... has some good aspects to it"

hospitals seem to be large bureaucratic institutions as much as places of health. Might reduce risks of nosocomial infection too ...

 

[Ovie]

I went to India couple years back. I will never go back, Absolute filth.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I went to India couple years back. I will never go back, Absolute filth.

I have spent some time there myself, so I know what you mean.
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com.au/2008/06/india-why-all-mess.html

But that is not to say that other is only filth there. The wealthy there know how to segregate that off, and they do offer some high standards in some aspects of things.
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com.au/2008/06/oracle-10g-bootcamps.html

I first visited the USA in the late 70's and hated it. My second trip to the USA was in 2002, I hated the treatment at the airports even more. I swore I would never go back to the USA.

So perceptions of a place can vary, as I'm sure plenty of people think highly of the USA (I liked San Francisco).

Anyway, there are many people who may not be able to afford surgery any other way. And the ideas behind that business model are interesting.

 

[Jkm7]

We have had some VR.org members who had their surgeries in India and they did great.
I don't recall their names but one young man traveled from Thailand or another country in that area to India. He had his surgery, was moved to a luxury resort for rehab and recovery. Raved about his care and recovery and returned to his Asian country of residence and his very physcially active life.

I don't have a clear memory of all the facts and details but I seem to think his whole cost, including air travel, was something in the range of $10,000.

In U.S., that bill would have been immense if patient was not insured.

 

[DebbyA]

This topic got a lot of attention 6 or 7 years ago. There was a widely reported story about a carpenter in North Carolina who went to India because he didn't have health insurance. The term used then was 'medical tourism'.