[yummyfajitas]

True, lots things in India are not available to everyone. E.g., running water, enough food, etc. This means India is poor.

To make the best comparison I can think of, spine surgery cost me 0.5-3 months of a local software engineer's salary. In the US the billing error might be 0.3-2 years of an American engineer's salary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/us/drive-by-doctoring-surp...

[danans]

Yes, a similarly high cost difference is what drove my acquaintance to have orthopedic surgery in India, which was far cheaper, even when including the cost of several weeks of recovery at a resort in Kerala. The US has uniquely high costs for specialty medical procedures and devices.

A friend who runs a biotech startup told me that most European companies developing medical devices and pharmaceuticals justify the high R&D costs and regulatory risks by targeting the high profit potential of the US market. In most non-US developed countries, they aren't allowed sell their product for as high a cost by law.