Trick or Treat - a survival guide to health care
3 Ruinous health care The Horse and the Groom: There was a groom who took pains to clip and comb
the horse under his charge. Daily he stole a portion of the oats meant for the horse
and sold it for his own profit. Despite all the grooming, the horse looked thin and
unhealthy. At last the horse cried to the groom, "If you want me to be agile and healthy, comb me less and feed me more."
A farmer was detected to have diabetes mellitus. The treating doctor did frequent
tests to control his sugar levels and prescribed many expensive medicines. This ruined the
farmer financially and he worsened despite the "good care." At last the farmer cried to the doctor, "If you really want me to feel well again, you must care less about my diabetes and think more about the basic needs of my family." Comments It is estimated that about two-thirds of rural families are in debt because of health
care expenditure (Phadke A, 1995). What is not realised is that this is largely avoidable. Tata group hospitals at Munnar have shown in 1993 that it is possible to treat all the
illnesses in their community of about 100,000 people with medicines costing just Rs 30/-
per head per year. The total health care expenditure for that year worked out to about Rs 120/- per head. These rates are even lower than the insurance premiums for health care.
It is, therefore, possible to deliver appropriate health care to a community at a reasonable cost, even in the 90's. It is a shame that the Munnar model has not been more widely 11
