Dec
25
2007
Health Care Goes Offshore
Author: balveyIn 2005, 46 million Americans — or about 15 percent of the total population — lacked health insurance, according to a Census Bureau study. For families who don’t qualify for Medicare but can’t afford private coverage, a sudden accident or illness could lead to financial disaster. The dearth of affordable health insurance has engendered a new breed of what the New England Journal of Medicine classifies as ‘medical refugees.’ These are patients traveling abroad for heart surgery and other crucial procedures; a practice that has grown sharply in the past two years.
In India, the cost of medical care in the U.S. is seen as an economic boon. The situation in the United States and other countries where health care is expensive will contribute to tourists spending $2 billion on medical procedures in India by 2012, according to a study by McKinsey and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
There have long been stories of people traveling overseas for optional surgery. However the new crop of traveling patients is looking for more essential care. Indian hospitals welcome these sick travelers with open arms. “The current wave of medical treatment will mature over the next five years,” says Vishal Bali, CEO of Wockhardt Hospitals in Bangalore. Just in the last year, Bali said the number of medical refugees treated by Wockhardt has increased by 35 percent.
Kathleen Schneiderwind is one patient who needed hip surgery to relieve chronic pain. She and her husband lost their health insurance when they retired, and the hip-resurfacing surgery doctors promised would help cost $30,000 in the United States.
“We began to look at places outside the United States and traded e-mails with doctors in Turkey and India. It turns out that the doctors in Bombay were both more experienced in this particular surgery and would only charge a fraction of what we were going to have to pay at home,” said Barry Schneiderwind. Not only has the treatment been first-rate, they say, they have been able to pay for their plane tickets and even get some dental work and a vacation in Goa – all for $10,000.
December 25th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Other cultures treat physicians and medical providers more like teachers are treated in the U.S. Everyone appreciates their hard work, will state by word that they deserve more pay, but they continue to be underpaid for the tremendous service. This allows for less expensive, but high quality medical care in other countries.
December 27th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
This leads me to recall the reason that a friend of ours has maintained his Irish citizenship, despite marrying an American. He carries no health insurance here in the States, opining that if something goes terribly awry, he can hop a flight to Dublin and be seen for free. I don\’t claim to know what his plans are if he\’s in an emergent situation, though…
Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com
December 30th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Well it is normal that costs outside … expecially in poor countries are much lower and this is a big (really big) business for all USA Operators i think.
Anycase I am not sure the quality is always so good .. depends from the situations