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Opinion: What India can teach the U.S. about driving down the cost of health care

A solution to reducing costs without government intervention and without reducing quality might be found in an unlikely place: India.
At Narayana Health in Bangalore, India, a typical heart surgery costs thousands of dollars less than it would in the U.S., and the hospital performs 60 percent of pediatric surgeries free or at a discounted price to those who can't pay.

With the Affordable Care Act under attack and all eyes on Dr. Atul Gawande as he starts this week as CEO of the new Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway venture, health care in the United States is more top of mind than ever. Surprisingly, a solution to reducing costs without government intervention and without reducing quality might be found in an unlikely place: India.

We have visited more than two dozen hospitals and interviewed more than 125 executives across India and the U.S. We learned that some of the most proactive hospitals in the West are adopting the world-class innovations of Indian health care institutions in order to boost quality,

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