INDIAN HOSPITALS BEAT BRITISH ONES

"BBC Radio Four (indeed any part of the B.B.C.) is not where one would expect to find support for liberty, but a few a days ago I heard, on the Radio 4 Today Program, a report on medical care.

According to the report private hospitals in India (including in Calcutta) offer British people medical care at least as good as that provided by the NHS, and in wonderful conditions (marble floors, everything clean rather than the dirt, and decay one finds in British government hospitals - thousands of people die every year in Britain from infections they pick up whilst in government hospitals) and at a small fraction of the cost of the (highly regulated) British private hospitals.

The Labour MP Frank Field (a man known for his honesty - hard to believe in a politician, but it is true in his case) came on to the program and claimed that a constituent of his was being left to go blind by the NHS, people are normally left to rot for long periods of time by the government medical service, but his sight was saved by sending him to an Indian hospital. The price of his medical care (not including the cost of flying to India, I admit) was œ50 - in Britain the medical care would have cost (according to Mr Field) œ3000.

So the choices were - go to a highly regulated British private hospital (if you happen to have œ3000), rely on government medical care (and go blind), or go overseas. Being a Labour MP Mr Field wanted the NHS to pay to send people to private hospitals in India (they put administrative barriers in the way of this ["it is too far"] - although they are willing to spend far more money sending people to European hospitals), but this was the closest I have ever come to hearing both the BBC and a Labour MP condemn statism in health care."

From Samizdata.




UNAFFORDABLE INSURANCE

"Doctors at Montgomery General Hospital are asking administrators to let them work without malpractice insurance because they cannot afford a statewide 33 percent increase in premiums. The doctors say the rates are so high now that they also are considering whether to discontinue high-risk procedures or to close or move practices out of state. "I look at these options myself," said Dr. Brian Avin, a neurologist with admitting privileges at Montgomery General. "I don't go to the emergency room anymore. I've cut back on treating the indigent. We've cut back on Medicaid. That hurts. I went into medicine to do all of those things."

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, yesterday described the price of medical-malpractice insurance in Maryland as a "very serious" issue. He also said that without reform, the state could lose its "very best medical providers." However, Mr. Ehrlich and state lawmakers have been unable to strike a deal to address the cost of malpractice premiums.

Meanwhile, the Maryland State Medical Society said this week that as many as 40 percent of the state's physicians will close or relocate if premiums are not reduced. Dr. Avin said he supports the Montgomery General doctors who are asking the medical staff's executive committee if they can practice without insurance, although he was not at the meeting on Tuesday night, when they voted on the plan. Montgomery General does not give admitting privileges to physicians unless they have malpractice insurance. But doctors want the hospital to drop the requirement because, they say, high malpractice-insurance rates are driving them out of business.

Doctors complained about malpractice premiums last month after insurance regulators approved a 33 percent rate increase for Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland, which insures about three-fourths of the state's doctors. The increase brought the cost of premiums for some doctors to more than $150,000 a year.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation.

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