Call a spade a spade.

Tweet

President Barack Obama once appealed to his country men for not traveling to countries like Mexico or India in search of cheaper medical treatment. This comment not only enraged the Indian doctors and hospital authorities but also the then Union Health Minister of India, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who described Barack Obama’s comment as ‘unacceptable’ because the world, he argued, appreciates the quality of Indian healthcare. But the question is whether he himself really believes that the quality of healthcare in India is equal to that of developed countries like the United States of America or the United Kingdom? If it is so, then why not only affluent individuals but also our political leaders frequently travel to the US and developed countries when suffering from serious illnesses or sometimes for a routine medical check up? It is no doubt true that private hospitals that have mushroomed in major Indian cities bear irrefutable proof that medical tourism has become a booming business in India. But a surge in medical tourism does not necessarily mean that all patients are receiving high standards of medical care. Similarly, a rise in the number of foreign patients does not suggest that citizens from developed countries are flocking to India in search of better treatment. Most foreign patients hail either from neighbouring Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal or from other poor nations in Africa and eastern Europe that have still now inferior healthcare facilities compared to India. Patients from developed countries rarely travel to India to seek medical care. They travel only when they have no health insurance and are, therefore, unable to bear the high cost of medical treatment in their own countries. Moreover, scientific literature and medical statistics prove that the quality of healthcare in developed countries is far superior to that in India. So, instead of reacting harshly to Obama’s comment, it is high time to call a spade a spade and to try to take the challenge of being equivalent to them.