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Comment by BryantD | Hacker News Reader

I'd recommend doing some more reading on the health care system in India. I believe that it worked really well for the poster; my initial research seems to indicate that there's a huge difference between the health care you can get in urban areas of India and the health care you can get if you're poor and rural. It's easy to build a health care system that works for people with money.

The infant mortality rate in India was 38 per 1,000 in 2015. That's really not good.

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My home state of Kerala has one of the best health care systems in India.

Infant mortality in Kerala is 6.7 (6.2 in US), life expectancy at birth is 76 (78.7 in US).

Per-capita income in Kerala is $2,271 ($53,000 in US)

So yes, you can provide good healthcare even with not a lot of money floating around.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_model

That's great reading and I appreciate it! From the Wikipedia article, it sounds like the Kerala government is very involved in health care. Am I reading that right?

Yes the government is very involved. My mother worked as a nurse in the state government health service and from what I have personally seen; the quality of government care is good and very cheap (sometimes free). But its not just the government; there are a lot of private institutions too in the state that provide quality healthcare.

Thanks for saying this is more friendly terms that I did.

What's also interesting, is that the US is likely a large net 'exporter' of medical tourism. I currently work with hospitals that are rapidly developing large businesses in medical tourism, because for all our needless systemic problems, people trust that, if you have the cash, you can find a good doctor.

yeah, yeah, yeah... when someone visit the US for tourism, they don't go to Alabama and Mississippi. They go to the big apple, las vegas and disney world.

When you are applying "Free market principles", you go to the place that maximizes your enjoyment/treatment per $$ spent.

Sure. My point is that the forces which optimize for medical tourism do not optimize for overall health care standards. You can certainly prioritize between those two things yourself.

They do have good quality private care which a lot of people in India cannot afford but most people from developed countries could.

Nowadays every doctor that is required by law(started in assam I think) to go to poor and rural areas and serve there for a minimum of one year. Things are getting way better than one thinks, there is a sense of socialistic way of doing things along with good old capitalism. Rural health missions are sponsored by the government and nurses and doctors are well paid(as per Indian standards).

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