Submitted by: Josh Hickman

For those of you who have not chosen Khanna’s Billions of Entrepreneurs for your read this quarter, I would like to bring to your attention a segment in the book in which I felt could break new ground in the practice of medicine in developing countries, as well as our own fifty states. The chapter titled “Barefoot Doctors and Medical Tourists” discusses what both China and India have going for their hospital system as well as where they fall short. China, whose hospitals are described as “clean, free of crowds, and well run” which is a stark contrast to a hospital in Mumbai which is filled with “hundreds of people demanding surgical attention with paint flaking off the walls and unsanitary conditions” (Khanna, 213). The story of Dr. Devi Shetty touched me, an entrepreneurial heart surgeon who once cared for Mother Teresa in his career, has provided affordable and reliable health care for people even in the poorest of India’s slums. Dr. Shetty runs a private hospital in Bangalore (Narayana Hrudayalaya) that can provide medical services for the equivalent of a few cents to people, and will not turn away anyone who cannot pay for service (some government subsidies help make this possible). Shetty won the entrepreneur of the year award at the 2006 World Economic Forum for building “Healh City”, a network of different hospitals and medical departments to house five thousand hospital beds and maximize the use of their medical equipment to cut down costs even more.

Seeing this success with privatization of health care, why do we still see medical costs in the U.S. for thousands of dollar per day? And what happens if someone does not have medical insurance? Some catastrophic illness could also mean the end of your financial future which would be devoted to paying off these medical costs. I have a very close friend whose mother had an unexpected brain tumor last year and was near death (thankfully she is alive now and rehabilitating), and her hospital bills were well over a million dollars for a two month stay. If the family had not had any insurance, they would be in a very scary financial situation right now.

So would privatization of health care and hospitals in the U.S. be an answer to our problems? Shetty has plans to expand to Mexico (see here for a short article about the project) as well as other cities in India including Hyderabad. This brings up an issue of whether it is fair to be providing free health care from our tax dollars to people who maybe are unemployed, or not contributing their part to federal or state taxes. However, by utilizing medical equipment and personnel more efficiently and effectively, driving the overall cost down for everyone could help the issue without having to resort to heavily subsidized programs. Dr. Shetty is an example of someone who thinks outside the box, not only to benefit him, but in order to revolutionize the model of hospitals and make changes in how a country operates.