Cost Comparison: CT Scans in India Versus the USA
My radiologist friend in India pointed out an interesting blog post of his (via Twitter*) today. See if you can pick your jaw up off the floor on this one:
A basic MDCT scanner (6 or 8 detector rows) costs about 2 to 2.5 crore rupees here in India (INR 20 to 25 million = US $ 500,000 to 630,000). I learnt from a source in the industry that the cost of the scanner is about 40% subsidized for the Indian market (compared to its cost in the North American & European markets). So the same basic multislice CT scanner would cost about $ 900,000 in the US.
We have a basic four-slice MDCT scanner in our hospital. A patient would be charged Rs. 3500 ($ 90, yes ninety dollars) for a plain CT scan or Rs. 4500 ($ 115) for a contrast CT scan of the whole abdomen. Ours is a small city. The charges are likely to be as high as Rs. 8000 or Rs. 9000 ($ 200 to 230) in the bigger metros like Chennai, Mumbai or Delhi.
Compare that price to a patient in the US who was charged $6,500 for an abdominal CT scan.
(Usual cost is ~$2000, but still!)
*If you’d like to follow me on twitter.com, my user name is drval. Check it out for quick updates and daily eyebrow raises.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
The same is true in Japan. The recent PBS special, Sick Around the World, describes what getting health care is like in Great Britian, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland compared with the United States. Great reporting and very sobering. It aired on 4/15 and is available for full viewing on the PBS website. Well worth watching.
Wow! That is a big difference, isn’t it?
Dr. Val I enjoy your blogs.. I am a physician and want to point you to my new book called “Puzzling Symptoms:How to solve the puzzling of your symptoms.” It is a book for patients who have unsolved symptoms after a medical workup. Published by Cable Publishing and due out in May. Hope you will like it. Clifton Meador, M.D.
Hi Cliff – sounds interesting. Can your publisher mail me a copy? Check out our company mailing address (corporate) and have it addressed to me. I’ll get it. Thanks
Many thanks for the link Dr. Val. Much appreciated.
The immense difference in healthcare costs continue to amaze me.
Here is another example
that I found on Ramona’s blog a couple of weeks ago.