Although this is, perhaps, not yet within the genre of "medical consumerism", I wonder, just as
TIME magazine reports, what will happen to the large population of new amputees in Haiti. My concern is based upon two factors: a) it seems that being an amputee in Haiti is especially socially unacceptable, and b) Haiti, desperately in need of relief and reconstruction, is a prime location for, perhaps, creating a new banana republic under the guise of medical assistance...
"In the U.S., for example, the most basic prostheses can cost between $1,000 and $2,000. Given Haiti's cheap labor, prosthetic-assembly plants could feasibly produce them for sale at half that price." (From the TIME article, "Haiti: What to Do with a Nation of Amputees")
I don't know - things will reveal themselves in time (or not), but a desperate, poor country full of amputees sounds like a money-making opportunity to me...
Although this is, perhaps, not yet within the genre of "medical consumerism", I wonder, just as TIME magazine reports, what will happen to the large population of new amputees in Haiti. My concern is based upon two factors: a) it seems that being an amputee in Haiti is especially socially unacceptable, and b) Haiti, desperately in need of relief and reconstruction, is a prime location for, perhaps, creating a new banana republic under the guise of medical assistance...
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