Sunday Posts

While the healthcare debate in America rages on, universal healthcare is not optional for the developing countries; it is a must have if these countries are going to run as functional societies. I have India in mind in particular. Indian government is increasingly deferring to the private sector for providing healthcare services, while making some efforts to get a nationwide health insurance scheme going for the poor and the needy. But that effort is more of a political spectacle, as most of the state-run hospitals are suffering from lack of investment and infrastructure. Most of the state hospitals, the sheer sight of it, are so scary that one would think it is designed to drive whoever can afford to private hospitals. In effect, there is a two tier system being created - one that costs money but provides services, and the other which does not cost money for no services. That surely not the way to look at this problem. It is a problem because Indian government can't obviously do a...

To someone who grew up in India, and knew what it meant to have below par healthcare and greedy doctors, and then lived in Britain and experienced NHS , world's greatest mystery is indeed why do Americans fear the idea of universal health care . The news have it that tens of thousands marched last week protesting against the government spending money on health care reforms, which will cover most people in America and possibly fix a broken system. But, truth be told - my wonderment did not start in the last few days; I have always found it baffling that Americans do not like the idea of government paying for health care , and label it 'socialism' for some unfathomable reason. I would have tucked it away in my brain as another peculiarity of the strange country which is possibly the most religious in the world but holds the right to own a gun so dear to its heart. But, America's refusal to let its government spend money on health care is more serious than that and ...

Cousins sometimes fight, but it gets too personal if the beloved NHS looks 'evil and Orwellian ' to politicians in America. Have the Americans not had enough of this myth about socialised medicine and still believe the stories that boards decide which medicine one can get? That's utter nonsense; for all the little disappointments I had with NHS in Britain - and I am an immigrant - I can't ever say it is evil, because it was mostly better than I expected. Agreed, I come from India. But then I am not benchmarking against the state hospitals in India, but against the better run private ones, where one can get world class treatment if they can afford it. More like America, I would say. Or the ones in Thailand and in Dubai, which is no less expensive than anywhere else in the world and no less luxurious. True, our local Mayday hospital may not stand in comparison in terms of luxury, but I have met some of the best professional doctors there, who were really committed to pa...