[tejaswiy]

The govt. of Andhra Pradesh (a state in India) has pioneered a state backed insurance program several years ago with reasonable success (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarogyasri). The problem however with these programs is that corruption within the healthcare industry is still endemic and doctors create fake diagnoses and perform unnecessary surgeries on patients to get their reimbursements from Aarogya-sri. If this program is to be rolled out a national scale, the govt. needs to address the systematic corruption in the healthcare industry first.

That said, I think Aarogyasri was overall a huge success in my state and has saved millions of lives and I'm excited to see it being adopted at a national level.

[kumarm]

Definitely Aarogyasri in AP saved millions of Lives. Current administration tried to remove the program since its not introduced by them and can't take credit for. So they are trying to kill it slowly (By removing people from program, cutting benefits etc).

I wonder what will happen to this Free Health insurance program when central government changes next time.

[victor106]

The current state government is pro business and don’t have any money to implement or continue any past programs. Whatever money they have is spent on pet projects and making themselves rich.

The previous government even though was corrupt at least did something for the poor. I personally witnessed AROGYASHRI being used by the poor and the amount of stability it bought to their daily lives.

I also agree that there was lot of corruption in the program. If the choice is between saving the lives of the poor with corruption vs letting them die without I would choose the former any day. After all, the healthcare system in the US is filled with corrupt participants.

Let’s us not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

P.S:- I am not a citizen of India or don’t have any Indian roots but I lived there for a few years doing volunteer social work to help the poor.

[coliveira]

> If the choice is between saving the lives of the poor with corruption vs letting them die without I would choose the former any day

This is very important. We need to finally realize that corruption is endemic to the system, and when corruption is raised as an issue it is generally to disadvantage the poor (last time I looked Wall Street is still doing fine even under the highest levels of corruption one can imagine).

[spynxic]

> If the choice is between saving the lives of the poor with corruption vs letting them die without I would choose the former any day.

Corruption inherently makes the system insolvent, and in the worst-case, will result in a major debt if not addressed early on.

[omegaworks]

>Corruption inherently makes the system insolvent

False. Profitable private companies have to deal with loss all the time. It's called shrinkage. It can be mitigated, but like everything the costs of mitigation must be weighed against the benefits.

http://fortune.com/2015/06/05/walmart-theft/

Keep in mind, right-wing governments actively exploit this "corruption exists, therefore the entire social program is worthless" bug in our national consciousness. It's an effective political tool to transfer wealth away from the poor.

I agree with parent:

> Let’s us not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

[thewhitetulip]

Well, this is the case with every state with possible exception of Delhi.

[horsecaptin]

Isn't the current government conservative and pro-business? If the are the ones implementing free healthcare, then why should the leftist opposition want to remove it?

I bet they'll try to undermine it at every stage well before they ever get power. That will make it easy to kill or fix it when they do get power back.

[Gibbon1]

Nice thing about corruption when it involves the government and not just two corporations is the government occasionally throws people in prison. In the US commit insurance fraud against a private insurance company and they'll just drop you at most. Commit medicare fraud and the government will claw back what you took, fine you, and maybe throw you in jail.

[empath75]

> If this program is to be rolled out a national scale, the govt. needs to address the systematic corruption in the healthcare industry first.

I think it depends on how much corruption is tolerable when trying to achieve such an important goal.

[alok-g]

Corruption in India is high by default. Just like security often can't be an after-thought in software development, anything new in India should not leave anti-corruption measures as an after-thought.

[toomuchtodo]

Watsi.org has made great strides in detecting and removing corruption from its healthcare delivery pipeline.

I wonder if there’s a consulting/contracting opportunity for them here.

[skynetv2]

+1 for corruption at all levels in the process.

+1 that many people benefited who were unable to afford decent healthcare

[boruto]

My babai is one of the beneficiaries of that said program. While I am thankful for that, The scale of corruption in govt insurance program is massive.

The card was given to white ration card holders(BPL). But many undeserving people also hold the white ration card.

They could also put those funds in developing govt health care centers, which are spread across the state and are in very abysmal state.

[khrm]

Total budget for this scheme is 2000 Crore INR (311.6 million USD) which comes to be less 0.6232 USD/ 40 Inr. What kind of healthcare are people going to get from this free health thingy? I know that medicines/drugs are cheaper here in India but not that cheap.

[kamaal]

There is a very active discussion going currently that the cost of the program could be way higher. Like 10x - 20x higher.

Eventually the numbers will be clear.