India a Leader in Trading Medical Services

I encountered the table above while going through this piece on India's Igovernment site.

This blog has mentioned here and here about the ability of dental surgeons and professionals in regulated industries to exercise market power by restricting entry into the profession. As stated, these professional associations extend the training periods and place arbitrary barriers to entry by other professionals in respect to providing less technical procedures such as extractions and basic dental care. Often this is compounded by resorting to scare stories about the mishaps that may occur even where the data shows that the probability of such mishaps is very low or non-existent.

The table illustrates one of the reasons India's success in the area of medical tourism. Comparing the prices for the treatment of various surgical conditions confirms the financial prudence in opting to undergo the medical procedures for patients from the UK and the US. Granted that the cost is not the only consideration but given the material costs advantage for India on most of these four procedures.

For the presidential candidates in the US, the cost of medical care is a primary campaign issue and it may be of assistance for their advisers to review these figures keenly. Knowing the serious impediments that come with providing the level of care that Us citizens demand, India appears to provide an alternative for insurers to consider. Its just a pity that tooth extraction is not easily traded across borders because the savings are not sufficiently large. In the areas of the more delicate and expensive medical procedures, the table tells the story lucidly: outsourcing in medical care is an option. Indeed, this may just provide the market pressure to reduce the high rents that regulated medical professionals extract.