Health system Comparison of Pakistan And USA

• This may look very ridiculous to compare the health system of the most developed country the USA and third world countries like Pakistan.

But the comparison is very interesting because both the systems are not affordable by the poor population.

USA examples

1. The American health system is so expensive that one can not think of it without insurance.
2. Health Insurance is costly and most of the daily workers can not afford it.
3. I can quote one example which I came across, was the handyman. Who was not able to get insurance nor was getting Medicaid.
   1. He was a heart patient and went to the emergency repeatedly. For that, he got the bill of $32000.00
   2. This fellow has back pain and when he goes to the hospital, they ask him for insurance and without insurance, they were not doing his X-ray and CT scan. Personally he was not able to pay cash which was around $3000.00.
4. Another example is one of my own patients.
   1. We went to the emergency for a painful abdomen. They kept for one hour and did CBC, LFT, and CT scan abdomen.
   2. After workup, they found no abnormality and send us home to consult a family physician.
   3. Later on, we got the bill of $7000.00

Pakistan health system

1. This is also not affordable by the poor patient.
2. If you go to a government hospital, there the working conditions are very poor.
3. If you can afford then you can get the best available medical services from the private setup.
4. If you are a civil service officer or influential person then also you will get the VIP treatment.
5. In Pakistan, the health insurance system is also not available.
6. In Pakistan few setups like Agha Khan hospital Karachi, Shifa International hospital Islamabad, and Doctor’s hospital Lahore and a few more know hospitals can not be afforded by 80 % of the population.

So I think these two countries are not fit for the poor to get health services and both health systems can be compared as the same, and not suitable for poor people.