by Laura Conaway

Nate Stell writes:

After a quick look in the mirror at a funny-looking mole, I decided I should make a call. The difference is that I've been living in Bangalore, India, for a little more than a year now, so my experience with the doctors and insurance companies was pretty different. First, there was no insurance involved. I have a catastrophic insurance plan basically just to keep me covered so I don't get denied for pre-existing conditions once I finally come home. At any rate, the health care costs in India relative to my income are so much less than in the States that I don't need insurance here.

The total cost for the original consultation with the dermatologist, the session where she removed three moles, and the pathology lab tests cost $61. This is about 19 percent of one month's salary of $325, which I would guess is roughly equivalent to that of an entry level position for a 4-year college grad in India or a diploma graduate (2 years college) with about 3-4 years experience.

 

The other difference is that there was no referral, I would assume because there's no insurance company worrying that I'm going to get too much care, since I'm paying for it out of pocket anyway. I called this morning at 10AM, thinking I'd have to meet a PCP and then schedule a dermatologist appt for a week or so later, but found myself in the dermatologist's office an hour later. I went back a few hours later to have the moles removed, and I'll get the results back from the lab within a week.

Of course, this is just one isolated instance, but for all the flak that India gets about its inefficient bureaucracy, I couldn't help but notice that this was the simplest health care experience I've ever had. I filled out zero forms, I paid the full amount in cash, and all the work was done in a day. Crazy.

This all made me wonder, and this is probably a ridiculously stupid question, but what about the flipside of the idea that everyone gets health insurance? What if the US banned health insurance? What would happen?