Bush Considers Outsourcing Some HIV/AIDS Care To India

[TechBear_Seattle]

I wish, oh how I wish this were a joke. People wonder about my avatar? That is me, reading about the antics of the Current Regime.

Report: Bush Considers Outsourcing Some HIV/AIDS Care To India
by Peter Hacker, 365Gay.com Asia Bureau Chief

March 3, 2006 - 12:01 am ET

(New Delhi) Press reports from India following a meeting between President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggest the US is considering outsourcing some HIV/AIDS care to that country.

The reports cite a joint statement issued following the meeting on trade, security and HIV/AIDS that said health tourism from the US to India was an area with "enormous potential for collaboration".

Given India's "world-class medical care facilities at reasonable costs, the two countries could leverage Indian expertise for their economic and social benefit" the Times of India quotes the joint statement as saying.

The two countries agreed to harmonize their healthcare systems and develop specialized medical insurance and legal packages for US patients to boost health tourism.

The full article can be read at http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/03/030206india.htm

[superconnected]

1. So this is Bush's opinion on overhauling health care

so americans can afford it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. That is what it looks like to me

Rather than provide medical care here in the States, send HIV infected people to India, which has "world-class medical care facilities at reasonable costs." :puke:

Who wants to bet that US citizens would not be allowed back in to the country, citing long time federal laws prohibiting the entrance of anyone with a serious infectious illness?

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Why is India getting all this special treatment?

What lobby group has come under the radar that we didn't even notice how they got direct access to our politicians and CEOs?

[Minnesota Libra]

6. That's what I want to know, why the special treatment......

.....now? I smell a fox in the hen house. :wtf:

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Do you think it has something to do with the nuclear pact with the US?

U.S.-India nuke pact raises fears
Concerns mount that it would permit India to increase its arsenal.

A landmark nuclear pact reached Thursday by President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohn Singh faced tough scrutiny by Congress and international regulators amid concerns that it would allow India to expand its nuclear arsenal by hundreds of weapons.

If approved by Congress, the accord would recognize India as a nuclear military power and herald a major expansion in ties between teh world's largest democracy and teh United States after decades of strained relations.

"What this agreement says is things change. Times change," Bush said appearing with Singh at Hyderabad House, the Indian government's guest residence.

"We have made history today, and I thank you, Singh said.

Does anybody know India's equivalent to Israel's A.I.P.A.C.?

It's in the Orlando Sentinel today, but I can't find the article online.

[Buns_of_Fire]

47. I can't imagine Pakistan is very pleased with that

Makes me wonder what Chucklenuts is planning to offer THEM as a consolation prize.

[psychopomp]

49. An effort to use India as a US-friendly bulwark against China

Though the Chinese have been lining up deals with the Indians as well. Furthermore, does it surprise anybody that we are arming both sides of a potentially hot conflict, this time in the case of India and Pakistan..AGAIN?

Where is that photo of Rummy glad-handing Saddam when we helped fuel the Iran-Iraq war?

[HughBeaumont]

14. Millions of dirt cheap, English-speaking exploitable labor, that's why.

A corporation's wet dream, and to HELL with the long run. CEOs need to get theirs NOW.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. CEO's are not well-known for long-term thinking.

I predict that India's labor force is going to backfire on any CEO who thought that India's labor force would be controlled or exploited for long. They don't need unions to march in unison. They are already united as a nationalized community, and they have a century long history of knowing when they are being exploited by a foreign entity.

[sandnsea]

51. Carlyle invested in India years ago

I used to post about the millions they invested back in 2000, but I gave up about a year ago. Bush is making billions for himself while handing the country over to India. In this case, it's clearly about the money.

[sui generis]

4. what the fuck is healthcare tourism?

Send American PWA's to India for treatment? "Tourism"?

is that like "Clean Air Act"? and "No Child Left Behind"?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. It's when rich people go to another country for the medical care

that they can't get here.

My ex-boss went to some hospital in Mexico to get his stomach stapled for 1/3 the price that it would have cost him in the US. He said the medical care was fantastic, far better than his mother had recieved when she took ill. He said 70% of the patients he met there were from the US.

[sui generis]

13. well as far as I know HIV "treatment" involves

taking medicine regularly for the rest of their lives, not exotic surgeries.

So again I have to ask, what long term treatment would "health tourism" possibly benefit?

Move all our AIDS hospices to India? Chemotherapy for opportunistic cancers? Most people who are that far down are unemployed or on disability and they are certainly not going to be able to "live" in India for six months of treatment and followup and still have a home in America.

It's the government once again trying to claim to be a healthcare provider, with zero qualification to do so.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

16. I realized after I replied.. that I have no idea how this would work

with HIV patients, because you're right, the treatments last a lifetime. The only thing I can figure out is that maybe the doctors/research is so much better there. We know that HIV patients have a hard time finding doctors here willing to treat them.

:shrug:

[sui generis]

17. that's actually not true -

there are many physicians who specialize in HIV treatment, and at any rate it's fairly common in most medical practice to have patients from across the spectrum who have been exposed for one reason or another.

Even full blown AIDS is not exotic - it's just a series of cancers that really old people get, or else secondary 'opportunistic' infections that can infect anyone, including the old and people on organ transplant treatments and dialysis.

This is a red herring, absolutely something to be deeply concerned about. It's a test balloon and HIV is only the first thing they'll try to shuffle off to India. Old fogies are next.

[TechBear_Seattle]

21. I'm inclined to agree with you

HIV disease is so widely feared and hated -- as this post demonstrates all too well -- that it is a logical (sic) disease to try first. If it is accepted (or if at least the outcry is not too obvious), it will become other diseases. Eventually, the only option for people with chronic, long term diseases will be to effectively give up their American citizenship and move to a horrifically overcrowded third world country where bathing in some of the most polluted water on the planet is considered a holy duty.

And the insurance lobbyists and CEOs applaud all the way to their Swiss banks.

[Tippy]

26. Aids and Leppers

"Eventually, the only option for people with chronic, long term diseases will be to effectively give up their American citizenship and move to a horrifically overcrowded third world country where bathing in some of the most polluted water on the planet is considered a holy duty.

Republicans hate Gay's I know not all aids patiens are gay but the right will love Bush for getting them out of our country....India is going to become our new aids colony (as in lepper colony....)

[TechBear_Seattle]

27. And quite likely, cancer, dialysis, lupus, coma care, etc. colony n/t

[MissWaverly]

43. aren't the ill people treated in Thailand at the temples

could this be what he thinking of, transferring chronically ill to 3rd world countries for
hospice care.

[phusion]

25. i plan on going to Mexico for a dental implant

Only about $1,000 vs. $3,000+?? here in the US.

[katty]

35. much better Health Care in some other countries than U.S.

our healthcare infrastructure is pretty much shot.

[fujiyama]

40. It's usually for rich retirees

The places where they perform these surgeries are not like the hospitals many Indians deal with (with poor sanitary conditions, etc) , but these are more like 5 star resorts.

It's mostly done for procedures with less follow up. I believe many go there for bypass surgeries and the like.

I don't understand how this has any viability as a solution to the actual health care crisis in this country. Health care costs are rising and the system is a disaster.

[NYC]

45. That's when, sick as a dog, you get on a plane, and

travel many long hours to a foreign country.

Then, after the long trip home, you can forget about follow up visits to the same doctor who treated you.

[ramapo]

5. How bizarre

Just when you think you've heard every fucked up idea from this idiot, he comes out with a new, even more fucked-up idea.

[peacetalksforall]

15. I can't forget one of his statements from a year ago - African police.

What I got out of it (it was as vague as this one is) is that Africans could act as world peace forces. They would be sent to Palestine or Berkeley or wherever? Africans would be less expensive that our soldiers? Africans are expendable if fighting breaks out?

Who in their right mind would go out of the country for healing if the program was promoted by this right wing government if they fully expected to return?

Do you think the Robertsons-Phelps-Falwells came up with this one? Or did India come up with this idea by pushing a right wing hate button?

There is nothing wrong with certain agreements that people come up with - but I wouldn't trust a right wing program for anything.

And then we have those prison camps that have been set up on military and national property all over the country that are empty, guarded, maintained, and waiting.

It is very obvious that there is a piece of the PNAC or xxxx? plan that we haven't seen that outlines a plan to eliminate every one who is sick, poor, dependent, or a dissenter.

[formercia]

30. In Germany, the first to go were the mentally ill and disabled n/t

[liberal N proud]

7. Does he want to turn India into a leper colony?

Get sick go to India

[gordianot]

31. Leper Colony excellent analogy. You would get a one way ticket.

A new form of immigration.

[MuseRider]

8. K and R

This is just crazy!

[elehhhhna]

9. We'll treat 'em over THERE 'cuz we DON'T treat 'em over HERE.

[FloridaPat]

10. Lots of benefits with this idea. Get rid of the gays. Get rid of sick

Americans. Send over the elderly when they need to go to a rest home. They would die much faster without family and friends. In fact get rid of all the sick people. Then the corporations could drop their health care poliicies and just provide tickets to India. The airlines would make a ton of money because of all the sick people being flown one-way. Since we would never hear from the elderly, they would drop off social security and save that. Great plan. Another one of *'s best.

[madrchsod]

12. ?????

then why are the some of the doctors in my town from india? my daughters political science instructor is an indian lady who`s getting her doctoral in political science and her husband is a doctor at our hospital. the hospital`s new heart doctors are from indian and pakistani. my first heart doctor is from pakistan
so we are going to fly aids patients to india? who in the hell could afford health tourism? what the hell is wrong with the mayo clinic and the cleveland clinic and hospital? my blue cross is going to pay for me to go to india?
this guy gets more delusional everyday

[liberalpragmatist]

44. People do it b/c it's cheaper

Elective surgeries are much cheaper - something like 1/5 the cost for things like a hip replacement or heart surgery, etc.

[area51]

18. k & r

And this interested me:

"The two countries agreed to harmonize their healthcare systems...."

Does India have universal healthcare, & GW Hoover is going to get them to destroy it & institute a pro-death/for-profit healthcare system like we have in the states?

[BlueIris]

22. Happy to be the fifth rec here; at the least, this is highly questionable.

[donsu]

23. "harmonize" their healthcare system with ours? are they nuts?

our healthcare system has crumbled and is for crap.

so now plane loads of aids patients are to be shipped to India? or is this just for rich aids patients. or, or, what kind of a con is this?

[TechBear_Seattle]

24. Inquiring minds want to know but not, apparently, the MSM. n/t

[freepotter]

33. Drugs from India????

Also from the article~

"The document also said that Bush agree to accelerate the accreditation of Indian healthcare institutions and professionals in the US.

The statement said that the US supported India's plan to raise the capability of its drug-approving agency to those comparable with the FDA. The introduction of globally accepted FDA testing standards will lead to "greater confidence and marketability of Indian drugs and foods," the statement said.

During his meeting with Singh Bush announced a contribution of $7 million for the India-US Corporate Fund for HIV/AIDS. The India-US joint program on HIV/AIDS began in 2000."

WHAT IN HELL IS THIS???? They want to market Indian drugs while they confiscate the ones we try to order from CANADA? I certainly wasn't aware that Canada didn't have adequate testing facilities, or maybe he means the FDA standard of taking drug company money while your testing their drugs. Stupid SOP.:mad:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. My generic allergy meds are already made in INDIA

which makes all the scare talk about "low quality" drugs from Canada just that, scare talk.

[Cobalt Violet]

28. "legal packages"

What is that? No rights if your injured?

[formercia]

29. India gets foreign exchange and patients get treatment

for less than minimum Social Security benefits. Balancing the budget on the back of the sick and elderly.

[VegasWolf]

32. Pretty soon, anybody with a serious illness will be sent by their HMO

to India for treatment and burial if necessary.

[Ian David]

34. Just called Congressman Barney Frank's office about this

This is the first his staffer heard of this.

We need to be calling about this

Now!

Remember how all the handicapped and mentally ill people came back from special treatment centers in little wooden boxes during The Holocaust?

"We're sorry, but your son died of pneumonia while receiving AIDS treatment in India. Here are his ashes in a little wooden box."

[HockeyMom]

36. Diagnostic Lab Tests sent to India Already

You didn't know that? It's not just IT and Customer Service.

[bleedingheart]

37. It is not just gays...it is everyone

60 Minutes did a whole piece on this ...all about how folks going to India to have surgery there.

I prefer my healthcare to be administered here in the US...where I live.

[TechBear_Seattle]

38. Do you have the name of the 60 Minutes episode?

I would be most interested in seeing it.

[bleedingheart]

41. Vacation, Adventure And Surgery?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/21/60minutes/main689998.shtml

[w4rma]

39. Medical records aren't so secure in India.

Good luck trying to enforce U.S. medical privacy laws on companies based elsewhere.

[VegasWolf]

42. Frist is busily buying HMO properties in India! nt

[WhiteTara]

46. Indian doctors like Bill Frist's can diagnose

by long distance? :rofl: this is a joke, it's not a joke. We are definitely living in the twilight zone. Add some hair on fire to that avatar and you could call that me!

[anotherdrew]

48. let's outsource our executive decision making to india - please can we?

who needs bush, we could afford a council of 12 Indian "bush" stand-ins. They'd probably be better informed.

[Hekate]

50. What? I can't believe I'm reading this. Here's a flash: HE'S NUTS

:wow:
How about we send our sick to the offworld colonies? It would make about as much sense.

I know about so-called health-care tourism -- those that can afford the trip can fly to specialized clinics in Singapore and the like, where world-class facilities await them for a fraction of the cost in the US. "Those that can afford it."

I also have a friend who comes from India, and it costs a fortune for her to go home and visit the folks, so she only does it every several years.

Why don't we just fix up our broken medical system right here at home?

Hekate