Policy Wise

The Economist has an article on the quacks practicing in Delhi,

Ten years ago Delhi’s state government drew up an “Anti-Quackery Bill” of which nothing more was heard. But the real problem is less the quacks themselves than the health-care vacuum in which they flourish. India’s private health business is booming, importing flashy technology to serve a growing middle class and foreign “medical tourists”. But the public health system remains skeletal. There are only 60 doctors for every 100,000 people in India, compared with 257 per 100,000 in America. In slums, sick poor people go to quacks because government-run clinics are too far away and the queues too long. In many rural areas, there are no clinics. [link]

Public policy has largely been driven by the medical profession which sees quacks as a financial threat. It is in its interest to introduce strong licensing laws to curtail the number of physicians. The key is not to punish the quacks by passing even more stringent (and unimplementable laws) but to train the quacks so they can serve as outposts of the public health system.