I found it fascinating how this goes way beyond wage differences -- it's a serious focus on fiscal efficiency. The entrepreneur behind this has opened 21 new hospitals in India focused on bringing more affordable care:
"...he has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade."
This leaves me wondering: Where is the innovation toward affordable care here in the USA?
Largely, on the lower end of the spectrum. Doc in the boxes for routine acute care, nurse practitioners substituting for doctors, pediatric medicine (+), etc.
+ One business model is "Pay a flat fee of $50, cash on the barrel. Your kid gets to see a doctor in under 15 minutes. You know and we know that 98% of the time it's just your child being sick with a routine illness. We'll write the prescription if required and rule out anything more serious. If it is anything more serious, we'll explain your escalation options."
I don't know much about the American healthcare system, but wouldn't it be the same incentive when selling any product? If you sell the same quality product for cheaper, you will get more business than your competitors.
The US healthcare system is nothing close to a free market. Every step along the way is rigged: the schools that grant medical licenses is artificially gated, you require certifications you need political clout to obtain to open a medical facility, you need to have enough money to play ball with insurers so you get paid for operations, you need to comply with thousands of federal regulations surrounding your procedures, you need to get zoning permission from wherever you are trying to set up shop to even build a medical facility (note that local governments are easily bought out by the hospital chain in their area).
There is also an incredible amount of corruption surrounding drug prescription and diagnosis to get people buying way more drugs than they need to.
It isn't anything close to a free market. I could never open a health clinic out of my garage and put out a sign saying free anything related to medicine. By comparison, India has much more volatile healthcare (because they can't police everyone trying to play doctor) but get innovation as a result.
I have thought many times of moving to another country (India being high on my list) just so that I could learn and practice medicine outside of the US Money/Chemical game called "healthcare."
What free market? What prices? Free market from price shopping you say?
You got hit riding your bike and are bleeding profusely from your abdomen. The ambulance driver asks, "There's a hospital 6 minutes away but they don't post their prices publicly (who does?) and we've never brought anyone of your condition there before. We think it will probably cost between $500-$10,000. But there's a hospital 45 minutes away that we know for sure will cost $400-$800. What do you want us to do?"
Let's suppose the government mandates that all hospitals must post their prices publicly. But you're bleeding to death. Can you really go shopping now?
A large majority of medical care is not for people in imminent danger of dying. Even procedures for people with the time to shop around are vastly overpriced and do not have prices posted publicly.
The high barriers to entry in the field make it conducive to collusion. I'm not saying there is collusion, just saying that given that the supply isn't going away and that new upstarts cannot disrupt the market, you may make more money by not competing on price.
That's how it should work. Unfortunately, the U.S. healthcare system isn't really a free market. There are many laws and regulations (and insurance company imposed rules) that prevent healthy competition in the marketplace.
We have a command-economy model with market-features.
It's not a free market, because by law, the Federal government gets the best deal. And they define what that best deal is (ie. price floor). Just like other price-control measures implemented in the late 60's and early 70's (the 1973 oil crisis is another good example), the results are higher costs.
Please don't ever suggest a Michael Moore production as suitable for increasing one's knowledge on a subject. At best the man is an entertainer, nothing more. His works have about as much claim to the title "documentary" as does reality tv.
"...he has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade."
This leaves me wondering: Where is the innovation toward affordable care here in the USA?