Lionel, obviously there are scams within scams. In the unfortunate event that you have a cardiac problem and you need health care at a speciality hospital, the surgeon who is going to replace your heart valves, insert all kinds of stents or whatever, is going to take the Government/ Insurance Co. to the cleaners beside taking a hefty amount in his favourite colour 'black'. Remember black is beautiful not only in the case of skin! But then it is your life that is at stake and you have only one. I don't think any one of us wants to be a statistic, at least not quite yet!
Take ordinary health care which say the Government servants and teachers are entitled to. The bean counters quibble to pay even the smallest amounts to you. As it is one has to go through reams of paper work, and then after all this effort, you have some accounts clerk who says, "Nahi". All this effort for a few measly hundred rupees. If you decide to go the private way, then let me ask you, "which doctor will accept a cheque as a payment mode?" Most of them charge a lot of money for a single visit and then some unscrupulous ones even dispense free samples and charge you for it. But these are probably more the exception. Of course, let me hasten to add: I am not condemning the whole medical fraternity. There are many that I have come across who will go the extra mile and do their best for the patient irrespective of monetary considerations. These are the real medical practitioners that Hippocrates (or as Wikipedia says perhaps one of his students) envisaged when he formulated. I think I better quit on this subject before a guided missile from the Bahamas lands on me. -- Tony de Sa. tonydesa at gmail dot com M : +91 9975 162 897 Ph. : +91 832 2470 148 ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
