Government runs hospitals in every town but only poor people use them(though they put up with bribes here). Rich and middle class typically use private health care as its generally better. Private health care in cities is excellent even by western standards. In towns, its decent. Poor also turn to private hospitals when time is important or when government doctors fail. One thing government does well is giving vaccines to new born and infants.
Also, many times, you just walk up to a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist for a medicine instead of talking to the doctor. Saves money and time
It would be risky to rely on this single story. I have heard directly from 2 friends both have parents based in India hospitalized there. Once doctors got hint that people from US are coming to take care, medical bills skyrocketed. One colleague end up spending 15 lakh (USD 25K) as hospital would refuse to release body of his father and issue death certificate. They keep claiming patient is critical and need ICU.
With other friends' mother doctors would keep ordering injections, each worth 20,000 Rs ($300) confident in the fact US based son can surely afford it. In the end he ended up spending about $35-40K for about 2 weeks of treatment which ended with mother's death.
Medical council is in cahoots with doctors and hospitals. If anyone has grievance they can spend years in courts before they see any justice about medical malpractice.
For most cases the price transparency in Indian medical system really really beats the American experience. If you have a Cadillac plan in America and you have really cutting edge advance needs that is when American system is both tolerable and better.
It's growing. It is seen as a business, so lots of new investment going in there. Quality of service where available privately is quite comparable or even better than their foreign counterparts.
Because in the article Deaton uses India also ("...But if you had to choose between living in a poor village in India and living in the Mississippi Delta...").
