Nepali Minister for Health and Population, Rajendra Mahato, on Thursday, said that the government was on its way to amend the health act. It turns out that President Obama is pushing to do the same in the United States.
I was reading an article titled: "Government Lays Out Health-Law Defense" in the Wallstreet Journal. The Obama government is declaring the state of health care in the United States to be a crisis.
In Nepal, Mahato is trying to over-haul the healthcare system in the same way Obama is trying to improve health care in the United States. President Obama's message is the same as Mahato's: that the healthcare act, as it is currently defined, does not reach all the people it needs to address.
Seeing the Republicans positioning themselves to battle it out with Obama, in many ways, Mahato may have an easier job than President Obama does in passing his bill.
But, in improving Nepal's healthcare system, Mahato has challenges that Obama does not also.
One of these days I am going to create a table to make a point by point comparison of the state of healthcare in Nepal and the state of healthcare in the United States. But for now, based on reading this article I want to ask you a simple question: if President Obama is saying that the state of healthcare in the United States is a crisis, would it be an exaggeration for us Nepalese to consider the state of healthcare in Nepal to be an emergency?
Both countries have so much similarities in many ways. Nepal is worst among the poor nations, while US is the worst among developed nations. It is clearly visible in terms of health disparities among socio-econmic and racial groups. Income inequalities are so big and even growing in both Nepal and the US, that influence the overall health and well being of the people. Prevalence of diseases, mortality and treatment options are also different among citizens of both countries. High disease rates and limited access and options are available for poor, racial groups and rural areas.
ReplyDeleteMaila,
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting comment. Quite insightful. And you are right, in terms of health care Nepal and the States have opposite issues to deal with: http://nepalishealthy.blogspot.com/2012/01/achieving-health-in-america-and.html