Our conversation with Dr Anand was interrupted due to technical problems, so we recorded another session. This is session two of our talk with Dr Anand..
You can listen on Libsyn, Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher (and a variety of other platforms). Probably the easiest way to keep up the podcast since we don’t have a regular schedule is to subscribe to one of the links above!
As mentioned in last week’s session, Dr Sunny Anand is a highly esteemed Pediatric intensivist at Stanford who also works with the heart to heart foundation and provides quality heart surgeries and cardiac care across India (and other countries) in collaboration with Sai Sanjeevani hospitals. He talks about his work, the services provided by this chain of completely free top-of-the-line heart surgery centers, healthcare in the India and the United States, etc.
Those wishing to learn more about the heart to heart foundation (chaired by legendary cricketer and gentleman Suni Gavaskar) can check out their website here.
Great conversation!
That there has not been an improvement in costs or care in the American healthcare baffles me, given there are so many examples around the world to draw from.
Anecdotes:
1. I was recently in Florida and had to go into the clinic for a family member. A non-complex 5 minute consultation as an international traveller cost us 390 USD. A similar consult would cost a foreigner in Canada 140 CAD. So more than 3.5 x. I don’t know, maybe we got ripped off, but like we had a choice.
2. A colleague once had a sports injury. He was pre-insured. First, they had to deal with multiple agencies, which clearly add tons of middlemen. When he called one of the agnets about a specific question on a cost item, the unsolicited response was “Actually, for you sir, we will reduce to quarter of the price.” I’m thinking, what the heck? This are we bargaining for onions?
Having said that, I have to say that Canada and the world benefits from the medical research done in the US. But does it have to come at such a high cost of capital and human suffering? The “how” in healthcare discussed by Dr. Anand through either “Seva” or any equivalent “subjective care” gives me hope.