Imagine you’re a taxpayer, working hard to make ends meet. You’re told your money is going toward keeping the country safe and healthy. Sounds good, right? But here’s the catch: a chunk of it is being funneled into shiny, expensive toys—whether it’s fighter jets or robotic surgery machines—while soldiers go without proper gear and rural clinics can’t even stock paracetamol.
It’s like this: governments buy pricey weapons to “protect” us, just like insurance companies push cutting-edge medical tech for our “health.” Both sound noble, but they often end up as cash pipelines to big corporations. In defense, politicians sign off on billion-dollar deals for jets, paid for by your taxes. In healthcare, insurers and public schemes cover fancy procedures like PET scans, while you or your employer foot the bill through premiums. The people making these decisions don’t feel the pinch, so they keep saying yes to the flashiest, priciest options.
Think about it—countries buy submarines when soldiers need better boots. Hospitals get robotic surgery systems while villages lack basic oxygen supplies. It’s not about what’s needed; it’s about what looks impressive. Arms companies lobby hard to keep governments buying their weapons. Pharma giants and corporate hospitals do the same, pushing their latest gadgets into insurance plans. Once they’re covered, demand skyrockets, locking in profits for these companies.
Here’s where it gets messier: in India, health insurance premiums come with a tax break under Section 80D. Sounds like a sweet deal, but it’s a subsidy in disguise. The government loses tax revenue to nudge you into insurance plans that pay for high-tech treatments at corporate hospitals. Your money ends up fueling their profits, not fixing crumbling public health systems. It’s like paying for a shiny new tank while soldiers lack bulletproof vests.
Both systems—defense and health—create a trap. Countries borrow to buy weapons, tying themselves to foreign suppliers. Healthcare systems lean on imported tech, driving up costs and debt while neglecting basics. The UK tries to avoid this with NICE, a body that checks if medical tech is worth the cost before it’s covered. India? We’re incentivizing overuse, letting corporate hospitals and insurers cash in while public hospitals starve.
In the end, it’s not just about safety nets or security. It’s about a system that prioritizes flashy tech over real needs—jets over boots, robots over paracetamol. Your taxes and premiums are propping up corporate giants, leaving the essentials underfunded and the country deeper in debt. It’s a cycle that feels like progress but hits us where it hurts most.
Health Insurance and Defense Procurement: Two Sides of the Same Debt Trap
- Protection as a Pretext Defense : Governments buy expensive weapons in the name of “national security.” Health : Governments and insurers promote costly medical technologies in the name of “health security.”
Both use the rhetoric of protection to justify funneling public money into corporate-controlled technology markets.
- Third-Party Payer Problem Defense : Politicians don’t pay for imported jets — taxpayers do. Health : PSU beneficiaries or insured individuals don’t pay for robotic surgeries or PET scans — insurers and public schemes cover it.
When decision-makers don’t feel the cost, overuse of expensive technology becomes normalized.
- Prestige Over Need Defense : Fighter jets and submarines are purchased even while basic soldier needs are unmet. Health : Robotic surgery, drug-eluting stents, and PET-CTs are reimbursed, while rural hospitals lack oxygen plants or paracetamol.
Both systems prioritize prestige technology over essentials.
- Corporate–State Symbiosis Defense : Arms corporations lobby governments to keep buying weapons. Health : Pharma/device multinationals and corporate hospitals lobby for coverage of their products in insurance packages.
Once included, usage explodes, creating permanent markets.
- Taxpayer Subsidy in Disguise Defense : Purchases are made directly with taxpayer money, creating strategic dependence. Health : Insurance premiums themselves are tax-deductible. This means:
The government forgoes tax revenue to encourage people to buy insurance.
That insurance money is then used to reimburse high-end corporate hospital technologies.
Effectively, taxpayers subsidize the expansion of the medical technology market both indirectly (via tax breaks) and directly (via insurance payouts/cashless PSU schemes).
This is why health insurance premiums appear as an attractive “Section 80D benefit” in India — it channels citizens into a system where their money fuels technology-driven corporate healthcare, not essential public health services.
- Debt and Dependence Defense : Imports lead to fiscal stress and dependence on foreign suppliers. Health : Reimbursement of high-tech medicine and imported equipment drives fiscal stress, dependence on foreign technology, and corporate capture of healthcare.
Both create debt traps disguised as progress.
- The NICE Contrast
The UK’s NICE evaluates each technology on evidence and cost-effectiveness before reimbursement.
India, instead, incentivizes overuse : not only reimbursing high-tech procedures but also subsidizing insurance premiums that guarantee corporate hospitals a steady market.
✅ Conclusion
Health insurance is not just a safety net. In its current form, it has become a distribution system for expensive medical technologies. By making premiums tax-deductible, the state actively pushes people into a cycle that benefits insurers, hospitals, and multinational suppliers — while public hospitals remain underfunded and essential medicines unavailable.
The parallel with defense procurement is clear :
Defense : jets over boots.
Health : robots over paracetamol.
Both are examples of how public money sustains prestige technology markets, leading to debt, dependence, and neglect of real needs.
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