Ashram Life: One Aspect

One of my heretofore unknown Imaginary Readers (hello Carole!) asked in a comment in my previous post (sorry I’ve been tardy about keeping this up-to-date) for more details on ashram life, what we’re being taught, and so on.

Well, I’m going to take a slight tangent here, because it’s quite relevant given things that’ve happened over the last month or two.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned at one point that Stephanie got quite ill with some kind of digestive difficulty.  The one upside to that was she lost quite a bit of weight…but that’s about the only upside.  I think I also said something about how happy I was with the quality and availability of medical care available here at the ashram.

I’ll take that a step further now, particularly since as I’ve been reading SF Gate online from time to time, I see this week you unfortunate Californians are paying the price for your Republican movie-star governor — who thinks avoiding a "big bureaucracy" is far more impotant than providing universal basic healthcare coverage for everybody.  Typical GOP response.  Hurt people to help businesses make even more money hand-over-fist.  Nevermind that instead of a bureaucracy run by the government — and thus answerable to the people — you get a bureaucracy beholden to those whose sole motive is ever greater profit.  In other words, they make money by denying YOU healthcare.  That strikes me as a damned lousy motivation, y’know?

Last week, Stephanie had a bad allergic reaction to something, resulting in a nasty red rash on her neck.  Very painful and itchy.  We think it was a cat that had scratched her.  Unfortunately, the rash didn’t really hit hard until we were away from the ashram on a ‘power-journey’ trip last week to the ruins of Hampi — an ancient, sacred city from which Krishnadevaraya once ruled one of the richest empires in India (early 16th century).  (I’ll write more about that trip in a future post.)  Because she was suffering so, I (exercising my spousal veto) and the ashram medical staff decided she should have a professional look at her.

Total cost for the doctor’s visit, in the nearby city of Hospet, including the prescription antihistamines and antibiotics they gave her?  About 500 Rupees — or roughly $11 US.

Still, upon getting back to the ashram, we wanted the local doctors to have a look at her, too, since she was still having problems.  Now as it turns out, our favorite ashram students who happen to be doctors — Clint Thompson, and another fellow named Thomas B — were back home in their respective countries.  No worries — there is a local Penukonda husband-wife team who work BOTH allopathic (traditional western) and ayurvedic (eastern) medical techniques.  They told Stephanie to stop the antibiotics, not necessary, but did start a course of treatments to boost her immune system, with a series of weekly injections.  She’s doing great already.

Total cost, including medicines, for this house-call visit?  150 Rs.  Under three and a half bucks.

I mentioned in my comment in the other post that I had a really bad migraine today — actually it’s day 2 of the migraine.  The lady doctor happened to be around today, and she’d already said she can help with migraines.  Not just treat them as they happen, but she says they can be cured.  She didn’t have the medicines on hand for that, but she did give me something that really took the edge off the pain.  Cost for this house-call?  100 Rs.  About $2.20, give or take, depending on the exchange rates.  She’ll be back on Wednesday and we’ll start this course of treatment to prevent further migraines — something involving daily nasal spray, plus some other treatments.

I’m telling you folks back in the States — you are all a bunch of suckers.  Mind, there are a LOT of people here in India who can’t afford even this inexpensive system of healthcare — but that’s where charities and the government step in.  It’s why, for example, this ashram often participates in "Medical Camps", to give free care to any who need it.

But for anybody with even a modest amount of money, getting decent care here — whether it be general medicine, dental work, eye care, surgery — even elective surgery — is trivial.  The reputable doctors, dentists, optometrists and other healthcare professionals are really quite excellent.

One of our friends, Tara, who needed extensive dental work — root canals, crowns, extractions, and an upper denture plate — had everything done for what I think was under $1000 (in Rs equivalent).  In the States, we’re talking over $10k, easy.

Back in California, even with health insurance, I couldn’t get to see my doctor for 10 minutes without paying well over $100.  Nevermind if she gave me a ‘scrip to fill.  Drugs there cost ten times or more, over what they cost here.  And I’m talking name-brand stuff, too.

I’m serious:  You people back in the U.S. are being taken for a ride by your healthcare and insurance industries.  Your coverage sucks.  You can’t even get in for an appointment when you really need one.  House-calls as a general practice ended two generations ago.  You are being gouged unbelievably.  And all the while, so many of you believe the lie that America’s healthcare system is tops in the world.

I got news for ya:  It’s lousy.

Still happy you elected ‘The Governator’?  Hmm?  Had Enough?

Try voting Democrat next time.  And don’t stand for it when they say you can’t have universal healthcare coverage.  All it takes is the will to do it.  Make sure the men and women you elect know that their jobs depend on it.