From what I’ve read India has some world-class hospitals operating on a for-profit basis for foreigners and wealthy Indians. The amenities are supposed to be fantastic - private rooms, private nurses, a superb doctor-patient ratio. All of it at a fraction of what you’d pay in the U.S. It’s much like the elite hospitals Cuba has set up for foreigners with hard currency.
What’s really interesting is how much these places differ from what the average citizen gets in some of these countries. The “free” medical facilities the average Cuban has access to are chronically short of supplies and equipment and have long queues. India’s state-run health care system can be the stuff of nightmares:
Cuban Doctors Manage to Defect (to USA) Via Venezuela
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=350054&CategoryId=10717
MIAMI – Around 500 Cuban doctors have defected to the United States while serving on aid missions in Venezuela, according to members of Cuban exile groups in Miami.
The latest case occurred on Wednesday when seven Cuban physicians managed to leave Caracas’ Maiquetia International Airport, after being held there for several hours and after paying hundreds of dollars each to officials.
“The Venezuelan and Cuban officials at Maiquetia systematically subject the doctors who want to leave to psychological pressure until finally they pay bribes,” Cuban doctor Keiler Moreno, who left Caracas five months ago, told Efe.
The bribes can range from $300 to as much as $2,000.
Moreno helped several of his colleagues who left Caracas on Wednesday and he waited for them at the Miami airport while they went through legal procedures with U.S. immigration authorities.
“We’re from the same class that graduated in medicine in 2007 and we help each other out,” he added.
Several Catholic associations and the Miami-based organization Solidaridad Sin Fronteras (Solidarity Without Borders) will also provide assistance to the four Cuban men and three women who arrived on Wednesday.
Sources with Miami’s massive Cuban exile community say that around 2,000 physicians and other health care personnel have defected since 2006 and requested visas to come to the United States.
more at laht.com ...