Prevention

To my surprise, SL was not very impressed with the health care system of Australia.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“They have so many problems – but, to me, the most remarkable point is they are too mean.” My friend said.

“Eh …?” I could not believe my ears.

“Let me give you a little story. Close to New Guinea, there are a few outlying islands that are occupied mostly by aborigines. As you expect, tuberculosis is common amongst these people. In the past, our government sent a medical team to visit them regularly by helicopter, and treatment of tuberculosis was provided free of charge. Not too long ago, however, this service was stopped because of our tight health care budget. Soon after that, because these aborigine patients are poorly and not properly treated, many of them develop multiple drug resistance. To seek some proper medical treatment, a few of them get to the Australia mainland by legal or very often illegal means, and, once multi-resistant tuberculosis is found, they need to be kept in top standard isolation facilities for a long time. You know, taking care of one patient like this cost more than the entire helicopter doctor program in the past!”

“Alas, in this case we are forced to agree with Mary Lasker,” I smiled, “If you think prevention is expensive, try disease.”