Learnings

A few pictures of my trip to Bangkok -- here we are yesterday at the National Health Office (a gorgeous campus with four helicopters parked nearby).

Thailand is doing incredible work in the area of universal health care, especially their use of tiered-accreditation to improve quality across hospitals. What impressed me was not just how much they're doing within the Thai system, but also how they're sharing learnings to other countries as well. Delegates from India and Nepal have come to see their system, and they are looking to set up an Academy for Universal Health Insurance, with participants from neighboring countries (e.g. they already have an MOU with Korea), where countries can learn from each other about implementing national health insurance programs.

Linking this with India, the challenge, of course, is that India is not "one" country, especially regarding health care systems -- but rather 28 states (at last count), many large enough to be countries themselves. In a country where over 80% of healthcare expenses are paid out-of-pocket, it is difficult to have any sort of coordinated national response. That's where hospitals like LifeSpring and Aravind can play a role, in terms of keeping prices affordable for low-income families.

I've found it very intellectually stimulating to compare and contrast the various countries' healthcare systems, and looking forward to being in Ghana next week!