What's your take on Indian Health Care System?
Feb 14, 2020
31 Comments
https://qz.com/india/1802684/indias-kerala-defeated-deadly-coronavirus-using-information/
I personally feel it's better than the US health care. Wonder what others think.
I've lived in both the countries. At least from what I know, thousands of other Asians fly to India for healthcare reasons. Healthcare is uber affordable there.
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Here is a quick comparison (a lot is based on personal experiences so take that with a grain of salt)
1. A large American population avoids going to the doc due to high cost of service and medications. This is not true in India, even the poorest people can afford service
2. Each doc is specialized in the US (deals only with eye retinas or tooth root canals or tooth gums etc) but docs in India are more generics (eye doctor, dentist etc who look into everything related to that). One could argue the former is better but I have a different take because different aspects of the body are interconnected (eye retina can affect eye vision and viscocity or tooth roots can affect tooth gums). Indian docs understand this synergy much better. Of course, if things are escalated, there are specialists too.
3. US due to its low population and higher costs sees lesser patients. But Indian docs see a lot more patients. Add to this point the fact that docs are available more often (until 9pm and walk ins are allowed) as compared to US (until 5pm and requires appointments), so practical experience is higher.
4. Due to lower costs, one doesn't have to deal with insurance and copay etc as often as in the US. Here, I can never be sure what my total cost would be (I always expect surprise bills at my place a few weeks after the doc visit) but from what I know, that's not a thing in India.
5. US has different facilities for each service (separate for consultation, blood test, ultrasound etc which again, require appointments) but most Indian hospitals have these services available within the same center so diagnosis is a lot quicker.
6. Insurance in the US is tied to the employer. This means you don't have the option to opt for a different plan (or it's too expensive). If one loses the job, one loses insurance. In India, insurance and job are two separate things. Even if one doesn't have insurance, it doesn't prevent people from getting basic services (like x ray, consultation ultrasound ct scan etc).
7. It is difficult to switch doctors here. If you are a few months into your pregnancy, good luck finding another doc for a second opinion willing to see you. In India, it feels like a free world where one can take as many opinions from different docs as possible. Also, US healthcare system prevents patients from having a complete report of their own diagnosis which makes it difficult to switch docs due to lack of previous history but in India, patients are given complete reports so they can show those reports to another doc for second opinions.
On that note, I have to give it to the US for taking mental health and it's issues seriously, unlike India where talking about it is still a big thing, let aside paying attention to it.
Cancer survival rate is twice higher in USA.
So by your logic, women in US have better healthcare than men?
Yiu can argue whether U.K. or Belgrade better healthcare than USA, but developing world is out of question.