Comments on: An Indian Heart Surgeon’s Quest to Change the World’s Health Care

By: Yuxiang Gao

Yuxiang Gao — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:08:11 +0000

I agree with Emily’s points. Speaking of the health care in the USA , I really had very bad experience of it. I had some blister on my face, I went to see a doctor, waited in the room for half an hour, after many tests, the doctor give me $200 bill and $480 prescription. Instead of buying the medicine, I called my mother tell her the situation ( my mother is a doctor), she asked me to drink more water and that’s all. 2 days later, i turned to fine.
The main issue for US health care system right now is the waste. Money is wasted everyday on unnecessary testing,But I also agree with Michael Harroch, It is very tricky to compare how the public and private sectors affect the health care system in different countries. medication, and visits to the doctor. So it is interesting to see what the developing countries can learn from the lessons the developed countries took.

By: Chris Phippen

Chris Phippen — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:02:28 +0000

I think Fred is right on. This is obviously a very complex situation with so many issues to discuss, but I would focus on the cost. There is no logical way, in my mind, that 10 minutes can cost $400 or a month long stay in the hospital can actually cost anywhere close to a million dollars. Or at least it shouldn’t be so. I agree that the price of malpractice insurance is probably immense, due to the sue-happy mentality of the American public. There should be some legislation in place to protect physicians from lawsuits for outrageously large sums of money for things like “emotional distress”.

I think Dr. Shetty’s efforts and those of doctors like him should be applauded and made more public. The American health care system could definitely benefit from taking a look at that of other countries.

By: Chase Janvrin

Chase Janvrin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:25:28 +0000

I think Michael Harroch makes an excellent point. Something as complex as a country’s health care system doesn’t simply have a plug and play solution. Not to suggest that we don’t need health care reform in the U.S., it’s just that taking a model that works in a different country won’t necessarily work in this one. While personally I’m for a national health care OPTION, I’m not for fully socialized health care. And as Michael pointed out, I don’t think it would work here anyway. That said, I think that one of the great benefits of living in a developed country is access to health care when needed. I applaud Dr. Shetty’s work, and think that U.S. doctors could probably learn a lot from his efforts. I think there are a great many doctors around the world and in the States that do significant amounts of pro-bono work, and it’s a shame they don’t all get the recognition they deserve.

By: Frederick Peemoeller

Frederick Peemoeller — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:58:56 +0000

Yes, the health care system is extremely inefficient, but is that really the only problem? i think the bigger issue is that when you go to the hospital and only are seen for 10 minutes to take three x-rays, the bill is over 400 dollars. Some of that money goes to the greed of medical suppliers, hospitals, doctors, and nurses, but a lot of that money is to pay against malpractice insurance. If Dr Shetty was in the states performing the same line of work, he would be bankrupt within the first six months because of all the people trying to sue him. The legal ramifications of a misdiagnoses in America are extreme, and, with the help of inefficiencies and greed, our healthcare system is self destructing.

By: Michael Minasian

Michael Minasian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:15:15 +0000

The reason that healthcare and insurance costs are so high is because of these extremely high cost “critical” procedures. When you have a collective, which is how American insurance companies operate, a relatively healthy person is paying premiums to cover the person who has to have triple bypass surgery at a moments notice. A doctor who covers basic health needs at a cheap rate regardless of circumstance should be praised, but it is by no means a solution to any problem that we have. Certainly something can be learned from the efficiencies which he has uncovered.

By: Jordan Wente

Jordan Wente — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:03:24 +0000

Dr. Shetty’s idea reminds me a lot of a video we watched in marketing this quarter. The video was about franchising health care in Africa and how this changed the way health care was being distributed to the population. Since the government in Kenya was not able to sufficiently provide health care to the communities, Chris Hillstrom stepped in an implemented HealthStores. The idea was to provide treatment for preventable illnesses and increase access. Interestingly enough these Health Stores were based on the business concept of franchising. Franchising the stores enabled the costs of products to be much lower because of higher volume and distribution. These are just a few of the many benefits the Health Stores brought to the country. Maybe a concept like this could be useful in India for those patients who do not need surgical attention but rather just basic medical attention. It might help reduce the problem of overcrowded hospitals. I know India is far better off medically than Kenya but just the basic concept is interesting.

By: Tim Lynds

Tim Lynds — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:39:37 +0000

To touch on some of what has been mentioned above, Americans need a pill to fix any health problem and everything is a health problem. There are quite a few systematic reasons why our health care is so outrageously expensive including insurance company pressures, over testing, and out of control medical supply and equipment costs. But people need to realize that part of the blame lies with the health care consumers themselves. Many Americans go to the doctor for anything and everything. People get a cold, they go to the doctor. People scrape their arm, they go to the doctor. People see a new freckle on their leg, well you get the point. In general we are over consuming health care in this country which is contributing to higher prices as well as lower service quality.

Dr. Shetty is awesome for making health care affordable for the masses in India. He made health care available to people who really needed it. Now that this health care is available, I cannot believe that poverty stricken Indians are running to the doctor every time they sneeze. They are probably not abusing and over consuming these newly available health services. If they did, Dr. Shetty’s system would probably suffer and prices would rise. The Indian consumers would essentially force themselves out of the market. Just a thought.

By: John Barry

John Barry — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:51:27 +0000

The story of Dr. Devi Shetty is a real inspiration. Why is it sometimes that the people who have the least to give are the most generous? According to a 2007 Harvard study 62.1 percent of personal bankruptcies in the United States were caused by illness or medical bills. This number is up considerably from 1981 when only eight percent of families filing for bankruptcy did so in the aftermath of a serious medical problem. How is it that the citizens of mankind’s wealthiest nation can’t afford to pay their healthcare bills and people living in India, a place where 45 out of 100 people make less than $1 per day can pay their bills?? I’ve heard a lot of speculation on the matter but I don’t claim to be an expert in the the economic realities of medicine so I won’t go any further into it.

While I don’t feel that my tax dollars should go to pay for someone unemployed in a healthy economic climate who doesn’t pay their fair share, I think that all children should get the best healthcare available regardless of whether their parents were ivy league educated or city college drop outs. My feelings are that healthcare should not be reserved for the wealthy and priviledged but available for all who need it, and I hope that congress eventually agrees with the President and I.

By: William Ary

William Ary — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:48:15 +0000

My issue with health care is that there are two different philosophies: a minimalist approach (where people are turned away as part of triage unless the benefits of medical care will probably mean the difference between life and death or lifetime crippling injury) and an expansive approach where people are free to come in to the doctor even for small things like the cold Emily mentioned. I think this is a result of the way healthcare is provided- either an out of pocket pay as you go industry or a completely subsidized, bureaucratic behemoth where everyone is equal and entitled to care but at the cost of a low standard of quality or a crippling tax burden that stifles the government economy. My own perspective is purely minimalist. I think no one should be guaranteed more than a small level of disaster prevention healthcare as part of a national blanket coverage program. Rather, people should be free to allocate a portion of their income to savings or insurance to cover their health. If they want better care, they can individually pay more to access it. People who make more money have contributed more economically to the society, so they have earned the right to receive more in return.

Another way to minimize costs is to ensure that competition drives costs down. Making sure that the costs of equipment, facilities and services are very close to their production costs will force the overall cost of healthcare down. Further, we need to evaluate what aspects of healthcare are really important. What is more important, giving antibiotics to sick people or making sure that each bed in a hospital has new sheets?

By: Danielle Steussy

Danielle Steussy — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:11:01 +0000

This is an incredibly interesting topic, particularly given the state of the health care system right now and the President Obama’s reformation project. Emily makes a great point about the amount of waste of health care in the United States. In fact, it even reminds me of every single episode of House where the crew searches for causes of illness by running an incredible amount of tests and procedures on patients until the patient has lost a couple of limbs, some organs, and have gone through enough unnecessary rounds of chemotherapy to last them a lifetime. Although an extreme situation, it’s always emphasized in the show by Dr. Cuddy that there are problems with insurance and generally how quickly everything adds up. Sounds similar to the current system, right?

Ultimately, as everyone has mentioned already, the most important steps to take to help drive down the costs of health care is to decrease waste and abuse of our current system. I think that what Americans need to do is really observe what works and what doesn’t work in other countries and what other doctors, like Dr. Shetty, are doing to help fix this problem. I agree with Michael on this that the copy/paste method doesn’t really work but at the very least, we can learn from countries and tailor their ideas to the culture of the United States.

The bottom line is, however, that insurance needs to be affordable to all so that everyone can get the health care they need in times when they simply aren’t able to afford it by themselves. So many of us have had the privilege of having health insurance that we overlook the fact that good hard-working are not as fortunate as us and don’t get the care that they deserve.