Medical Tourism and Such...

We have friends visiting India from the US, for dental work. Apparently, it costs their insurance company less to fly them over to India, and take care of their fillings, root canals, etc. than to do the same in the US. Having stayed for over a decade in the US, I can personally vouch that the dentists in India are much better. So my sympathies are entirely with my friends-they rather see a dentist here-it is cheaper, better. However, there is always a further story to tell.

Bangalore, like all the other fast developing metros in India, is seeing a rapid rise in promoting, read- selling, human resources as a primary commodity to the markets of hard currency developed nations-service oriented businesses flourish catering to the lifestyles of folks from the wealthy world. BPO centers to provide services at the touch of a button, western model health care facilities and well being centers to cope with stress of too much money, too many goodies, too much self indulgence, abuse of the self. Apparently, a cataract surgery that costs about 300USD, for both eyes, in India, costs as much as 2000USD per eye, in USA. So, you see, the incentives for the foreign patients, or their insurance companies, is very large. It is easy, now, to combine a serious surgery with a recuperating holiday in the Kerela backwaters- massages, beaches, entertainment, shopping all thrown in. All of this is well and fine-some people need money, others need services-good barter for both.But, what is bothersome, in case of outsourcing medical care is that the same, or even a smallest fraction of these facilities, are not available to most of the society. Between all the doctors or medical workers still leaving the country for better opportunities abroad and an increasing in-home competition for the higher paying foreign markets, the system is highly strapped in meeting the health requirements for most of its own people. Rural health care is no longer an attractive choice for the budding generation of doctors that graduate each year. A government that subsidizes, to a very large extent, all higher education within the country, leaves consumers to decide what happens to the end product of its social investments. And thats precisely because the government itself is running around-selling itself short, selling itself fast, selling land, water, energy, food, basic necessities as rapidly as it can to large corporations, either from home or abroad. The strength of our nation is now gauged in terms of buying power of its burgeoning middle class, rather than the percentage that are fed, educated, healthy. Throwing away the rights of the common man, our largest pool, has assured us respect with WTO, GAT, and other MNC controlled global policy makers. Besides cheap, displacable labor, and a corruptible vote bank in our so called democratic system, the poor amount to little else with the schemers at the top. And this is what sets the tone for a national conscience, or a lack of it.

What we have to ask, is whether an inclusive, equitable society of equal opportunities is not the more beneficial for our nationhood, our lifestyles, even our economics. Do we really gain by keeping a majority of our population non-accounted in our plans, future goals, directions?Is it in our best interest to entirely marginalise a majority and then complain at the violence it breeds, hatred it nurtures -generation upon generation. Is seeking global economic prosperity making us blind to the filth we generate in our backyards-humans whose hopelessness will hit us harder than any terrorism seen so far.

So what is a solution? As a friend wisely said, enforce conscriptions in army for all, and make a country hesitant in waging war-or in this case, make all of society contribute towards upliftment of its weaker sections, in-kind, for the benefits it receives. This will go towards meeting the basic needs of the majority, to ensure long term stability of a society and also go a long way in sensitizing our privileged young to a path of right action-where more than just economic success govern life goals.