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Monday, April 24, 2017

What REALLY makes healthcare expensive in India

Is it the doctors? Is it the Medicines?

The answer in none of the above. Most medicines are cheap and most doctors don't charge much for their consultation. 

The culprits are big corporate hospitals that are now just around the corner. These buildings are like 5 star luxury hotels, being run by MBAs with salaries that can be up to a crore a year. Getting a bed there does not depend on how sick you are, but on how much money you can spend. While these hospitals look good on the outside, they have many skeletons in their closets. The difference is, whenever they run into any medico legal issues, they can buy/bully their way out. 

    They don't really care about you, or how your health is, they just want you to check into one of their expensive rooms and spend 100 times more money than you need to. Your life to them is just a number on an excel sheet, and they like big numbers. They force doctors for "conversions". A "conversion" is when an OPD patient becomes an inpatient. Doctors have "conversion" targets, which are assigned by these business school graduates who will do anything for revenue.

Corporations have lied to us, polluted our environment and sold us poison for profits. Should we trust them with our health?

Disease is a business opportunity, elongation of the disease is an add on bonus for them. The real culprits are the ones who deny entry to poor patients. Hospitals that keep people hospitalized longer for profit. 

Blaming the doctors and the drugs is just a way to keep the light away from the real culprits who have turned this noble profession into a number on an excel sheet.     

We need to open our eyes, see past the glamour and marketing; stop blaming the doctors who spend the better part of their lives lost in books and disease.

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