INDIA DOES OPEN HEART SURGERY FOR $2,000 - WELL

A private mega-hospital “has transformed health care in India through a simple premise that works in other industries,” reports the Wall Street Journal: “economies of scale.  By driving huge volumes, even of procedures as sophisticated, delicate and dangerous as heart surgery, Dr. Shetty offers cutting-edge medical care in India at a fraction of what it costs elsewhere in the world.  His flagship heart hospital charges $2,000, on average, for open-heart surgery, compared with hospitals in the U.S. that are paid between $20,000 and $100,000 . . . ” 

 

And his results seem to be even better than ours. 

 

This former care-giver to Mother Teresa is now planning to build a 2000-bed general hospital just an hour’s flight from Miami, in the Cayman Islands.

 

Everyone seems to focus on the way Canadians allegedly flock to the U.S. for care.  Well, some do – but not nearly as many as Americans who are expected to flock elsewhere.

 

. . . By next year, six million Americans are expected to travel to other countries in search of affordable medical care, up from the 750,000 who did so in 2007, according to a report by Deloitte LLP. A handful of U.S. insurance plans now give people the choice to be treated in other countries.

 

CHAZ

Have you got seven minutes?  This GMA interview might make me a little uncomfortable at first.  It is, after all, about an adorable little girl who is now a man.  But minutes later, I think, you will be at ease – and feeling better about yourself for having an even broader understanding of the human comedy. 

 

I remember almost nothing of William Saroyan’s novel by that name, except its wonderful title.  Where possible, can’t we just smile, rather than snarl, at life’s perplexities? 

 

Can’t you just see God, if you believe in Her, making little boys in little girls’ bodies and smiling to Herself, “Well, this should be amusing.”