‘Where would I find this amount of money?’: Private hospital patients in Kenya grapple with crushing debt

3 comments

1. If people require it to continue being alive, they shouldn’t have to pay for it. The idea of a “private hospital” is a bad joke.

2. My first thought was that health services, specially in west africa, should be social first and not profit driven, of course these issues would come up.

   But apparently, the World Bank give billions for public health services in the region, but these private hospitals are, supposedly, an attempt at strengthening care standards in quality, autonomy and fill the gaps public services cant fill.

   So, the article instantly blames the World Bank and the IFC with these failings, but whats the alternative?

   We either do 100% free public healthcare, but these countries are forever reliant on foreign aid, or we do a mix of public and private investment, which gives space for their own health industry to develop, but isn’t free. This last one seems to be WB’s logic

3. Same old story with governments failing the Stanford marshmallow experiment in real-time

   A state doesn’t “save money” letting a 10 year old die unnecessarily (Frank), that’s lost tax revenue in exchange for a few extra pennies

   I sympathize with practical constraints like debt obligations at the national level that exclude full public options, but healthcare systems that lean on these private aspects need to balance them carefully

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