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My understanding is doctors in US are trained to scare you about every possible negative outcomes. I find visiting a doctor here is much much more stressful tha

by hvmonk 11y ago

My understanding is doctors in US are trained to scare you about every possible negative outcomes. I find visiting a doctor here is much much more stressful than doing it in India. For a simple chest pain, doctors here would tell you 145566 possible scenarios that may happen with your body, and wouldn't confirm any unless he sees a lab test. And then, a tide of lab tests would start, which will cripple you financially, and emotionally because all you are thinking is which test would be +ve, which -ve; diving on internet where people usually blog about their -ve experiences. Usually, it could be just a muscular pain, etc, which become so irrelevant as you are undergoing all these lab exams. I don't want to blame the doctors here as such, because that's how they are trained here. I guess it boils down to this robust "suing infrastructure" here, that if you missed out a rare symptom with a patient, he will sue you and finish your career. One thing which I couldn't understand is why in a developed country, lab tests are so expensive. An Xray, costs about $100; similar thing costs about Rs 80 (equivalent to $1.25). Shouldn't they be cheaper here, given there are gizmos for everything, and all electronics items are much cheaper here than India. I think these costs are all artificial. I think a mix of both approaches (insurance + free market) would better.

chimeracoder 11y ago
> One thing which I couldn't understand is why in a developed country, lab tests are so expensive. An Xray, costs about $100; similar thing costs about Rs 80 (equivalent to $1.25). Many lab tests - though not all - are effectively commoditized. There is little difference in quality, and the requisite supplies are widely available at low costs. X-rays have been used for medical purposes for literally over 100 years, and it's not very difficult to train someone to take an x-ray properly using modern equipment. (Actually interpreting the results of a test is a different matter). For tests which fall under these categories, it will always be more expensive to obtain them in the US than in India, because the cost-of-living in the US is much higher, and paying people to actually perform the tests dominates the costs of the test itself. There's a little more to it than that, but that's the general idea.

by hvmonk 11y ago

chimeracoder 11y ago

> One thing which I couldn't understand is why in a developed country, lab tests are so expensive. An Xray, costs about $100; similar thing costs about Rs 80 (equivalent to $1.25). Many lab tests - though not all - are effectively commoditized. There is little difference in quality, and the requisite supplies are widely available at low costs. X-rays have been used for medical purposes for literally over 100 years, and it's not very difficult to train someone to take an x-ray properly using modern equipment. (Actually interpreting the results of a test is a different matter). For tests which fall under these categories, it will always be more expensive to obtain them in the US than in India, because the cost-of-living in the US is much higher, and paying people to actually perform the tests dominates the costs of the test itself. There's a little more to it than that, but that's the general idea.