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Medical Care Gets Outsourced Too
Muppy writes "Here's the summary from the most emailed article in The Washington Post today -- about an American who went to India for heart surgery, which he could never have afforded here. U.S.: $200,000 total cost ($50,000 deposit required) for heart operation. India: $10,000 total bill, including hospital, air fare, and a side trip to the Taj Mahal. And the Indian doctors are probably at least as good as those one is likely to get in the U.S. From the article: 'Eager to cash in on the trend, posh private hospitals are beginning to offer services tailored for foreign patients, such as airport pickups, Internet-equipped private rooms and package deals that combine, for example, tummy-tuck surgery with several nights in a maharajah's palace...'"
And the Indian doctors are probably at least as good as those one is likely to get in the U.S.
Well of course! (notice this is just sort of thrown in as if it is settled fact with not one shred of support) Why, it's just like the programmers! So now, we've made the M.D. useless and worthless. Good to know we former programmers are just as worthless to our neighbors as the good doctor who works 22 hour shifts in the emergency room.
"Mom? Dad? I've decided to go to medical school! I just got accepted to UCLA!"
"Wouldn't you rather have a career in a field where it's easier to find a job? I hear Wal-Mart has a management program"
We are slowly, systematically and deliberately destroying the value of all education, and nobody sees a problem with this. Nobody sees a problem. 50% of the people who live around UCLA are illiterate, and nobody sees a problem.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
And this is different from the US system... how?
Oh, right. The merits of the case don't matter in either side of the border, but the defendant gets screwed even harder than the plaintiff. Therefore, at least you can get medical treatment in India.
Ah, that was predictable. Mention how John Edwards got his money, and get modded as a troll.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Hey i got this operating system, its REALLY expensive and was designed with the same skill and attention that Linux and other Free ( as in cheap ) OSes were but we PAID are employees and stockholders ALOT of money. Cheap == Bad, so pay for your OS or you'll regret it.
what a typical american thought...."how do i sue?" Have you noticed that sueing happens to be on the mind of any "unfortunate" american. How sad, this country is so lazy and greedy. Anyway to get free money is on the minds of americans.....if you fly to another country to get work done.....you should understand that you are taking a risk. Im not saying that the doctors here are any better and that they are worth the masive amounts of money they ask for when the bills come in.....but the thought of sueing someone is so typical in this country.
If it wasn't for C, we would be stuck using BASI, PASAL and OBOL.
Anonymous distressed Coward, you clearly don't know many doctors personally. Their weedout process doesn't create any tougher doctors, nor is the kind of egotism you seem to desire very helpful in treating sick people. As I described, the weedout produces greedy doctors, who take unnecessary risks for more pay, who undercut their fellow doctors who are always presented as a threat, who see patients as grist for the mill of their investment strategies, who are "toughened" to cruelly discard colleagues and patients when they conflict with their bottom line. Of course there are still many committed, hypercompetent doctors. But the transformation of the doctor from a compassionate bedside manner that cooperates with patient, colleagues and staff, into the prescribing, cutting, golfing machine who can't relate to anyone around them, was performed by selecting them for greed rather than compassion, or even competence. Fighter pilots are killers: weed out those without the cutthroat impulse. Doctors are healers: let's make as many as we can, who prioritize humans over money.
--
make install -not war
"Children... Don't grow old with out them".
To me the greatest part is laying in bed on Saturday morning with the missus and a baby between you two. With the baby looking all around in wonder. Better yet, is the second one between you, and the first one crawling around, and the second one trying to follow the first. Total magic, there's no feeling of love like that...
One of the most common arguments aginst having kids is that we live in a horrible world. We don't, in the US (except the drug cultures), we live in the best of worlds, in the best of times. Live expectancy is approaching 100 years. The big ten killer diseases of children in 1900 are controlled. Infant mortality is practically zero for non-drug users. You can sum it up to something Paul Graham said, that I re-read today even common folk enjoy "the luxury of curiousity". Wether we spend that luxury on wastful (TV) or productive diversions is irrelevant. We have that luxury, many more. Our greatest health threat is obesity.
- High Tech workers, please say NO to Union Carpenters, their Union sees fit to control our compensation.
Trial lawyers like Edwards *do* drive up the cost of the American health care. The reasons are many and complicate, which means they're beyond your comprehension, but can be condensed down to:
1) Americans stopped paying for health care via the free market system when employers, seeking to offer bennies that were tax deductable, offered 3rd party payer insurance to new hires.
2) People stopped paying for doctor visits. Are you kidding me, you morons? A doctor visit costs next to nothing. Why should you file a claim for a regular check-up? What's next? filing with your Beer Insurance for a weekly case of Bud Light? Here's a hint: if you can't afford a simple doctor visit, you should commit suicide right away. You are too poor to live.
3) Every time a surgen left a sterile, harmless sponge in some patients body after saving his drunk ass from dying from the steering wheel jutting from his chest, the judicial system flipped out and granted the "plaintiff"--a.k.a. "buttmuncher"--a huge cash settlement, of which 40% went to assholes like John "Eternal primper" Edwards. Big insurance companies would simply settle, because it's cheaper for them to do so, until the market, which never lies, encouraged a horde of like-minded assholes to sue for every damn thing under the sun.
4) Doctors, now facing $40-200K/yr bills for liability insurance, plus uncountable hours of hassle and annoyance, said "WTF, mate? I can invest what money I have in tax-free municipals and live a decent life and not have to be deposed by another goddamn prissy law-school bloodsucker every time I blow my nose."
5) The market, rearing its head again, says, "Gee--there are no doctors, and all the smart people are going into law since that's where all the money and chicks are." So it costs $10 to get a half-trained community college graduate in "Health Studies" to put a band-aid on you.
6) Bigger assholes start talking up socialized medicine, despite the obivious problems, and other morons (that's you) start buying into it.
India doesn't have the same regulatory problems that we do. They are cheaper. Do you see the connection? Fucking asshole.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.