I loathe saying it, but I think the US should import India’s bright entrepreneurs and their organizations to manage it’s healthcare and nutritional programs.
In the US, 31% (or 1 out of 3) of people are obese (which is defined as 30 pounds or more above a healthy weight range) and 65% of people (or 2 out of 3) are either overweight (at least 10 pounds above a healthy weight range) or obese. Current projections put obesity at 40% (or 2 out of 5) within 5 years. And these statistics are almost as bad for children as they are for adults! (And you can’t blame TV and lack of physical activity. Nutrition and diet has a greater effect on weight than exercise, which has a greater effect on overall health and stamina. The problem is that the average American consumes too much sugar. The Bitter Truth is that variants of bad sugar are in everything these days.)
Part of the problem is the US school lunch program, and its insufficient funding, which leads to purchases of cheaper, junk foods (including processed chicken nuggets, etc.) in place of more expensive, healthier foods. And while the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act seems like a good start, you just know that most of the additional funding will get eaten up in administration costs. (And even if this doesn’t happen, I have to agree with Gordon Jenkins that the funding being allocated just isn’t enough.)
Then there’s the state of healthcare in the US, which is dismal if you don’t have pricey private insurance, and still over priced if you do. In fact, despite the fact that the USA leads in GDP, and should lead in healthcare innovation, the World Health Organization has it’s health care system ranked at 37! To put this in perspective, Costa Rica is 36, Saudi Arabia is 26, and Oman is 8 — which are not countries your average American would think of as ranking high in health care.
In comparison, India has the 1,000 bed Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital with a team of 40+ cardiologists who perform about 600 operations a week for an average charge of $2,000 — at a success rate that rivals the best American hospitals. By employing Henry Ford’s management principles to create a combination of economies of scale and specialization, Devi Shetty has developed a system that can drastically reduce the cost of surgery. If the principles were applied to other areas of medicine, imagine the efficiencies, cost savings, and success rates that could be achieved. (After all, now that hospitals are starting to use before-and-after surgical checklists, success rates are soaring and infection rates plummeting.)
And while that’s impressive, what Akshaya Patra is managing to do is even more stunning! For a mere $28 each, they are managing to provide over 1.2 Million children in school with a healthy lunch (which might be the only complete meal they get that day) every day for the entire school year. By leveraging appropriate technology in cooking and delivery, local markets, and designing for scalability, the public/private/NGO partnership is achieving economies of scale that have not been achieved before — and proving that a healthy student is a successful student. The increased quality of the lunches provided have led to increased enrolment, better health, and improved performance (that is 13.8% better, on average, for boys and 34.2% better, on average, for girls).
Compared to India’s success, the US looks like a third world country. Maybe the US should be insourcing from India.